Source of Duterte's '3M drug users' figure is new drugs board chair

MANILA, Philippines -- The retired general often quoted by President Rodrigo Duterte to highlight the drug menace in the Philippines has been named head of the body tasked to craft policies on preventing and controlling substance abuse.

 

Duterte has appointed former military chief Dionisio Santiago as chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said Sunday.  

 

Santiago served as Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director-general during the administrations of Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. He ran for senate during the 2016 polls but lost.

 

“His (Santiago) expertise and advocacy is fighting illegal drugs, which became his platform when he ran in the last elections,” Abella said.

 

“General Santiago’s return to the national government with his appointment to the DDB will greatly contribute to the president’s vision of a drug-free Philippines,” he added.

 

Santiago will replace former DDB chairman Benjamin Reyes, who was dismissed by Duterte last May for supposedly “contradicting” the government.

 

READ: Duterte fires drugs board chair for 'contradicting government'

 

Duterte has repeatedly claimed that there are four million drug addicts in the Philippines to justify his iron-fisted approach to the narcotics problem. The President’s approach has been criticized by human rights groups for allegedly encouraging extrajudicial killings.

 

Citing figures from Santiago, Duterte said there were already three million drug users in the Philippines five years ago. Reyes, however, reported that there are only 1.8 million drug users based on the DDB’s 2015 Nationwide Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse in the Philippines.

 

Reyes, in an interview with Philstar.com in February, tried to justify Duterte's figure of four million drug users but his explanation was disputed by an expert on statistics. .

 

The 2015 survey and Reyes' use of it for reference drew the ire of Duterte, who immediately dismissed the DDB chief from his post.

 

"I would like to put to task publicly this Reyes," the president said in a speech at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last May 24.

 

“You’re fired today. Get out of the service. You do not contradict your own government,” he added.

 

Previous reports said 9,000 suspected drug offenders have died since Duterte assumed office last year but Malacañang dismissed them as “false news.”

 

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella had said only close to 1,400 of the more than 6,000 deaths under investigation were related to illegal drugs.

 

Duterte has said he would not stop his brutal war on illegal drugs until the last drug pusher or drug lord is off the streets.