PNP chief scores Duterte drug war 8/10

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration’s war on drugs deserves a high rating as the campaign helped improve the country’s peace and order situation, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said yesterday.

“I can say out of 10, it’s between eight and nine na gusto ko rin magkaroon ng room for improvement,” Eleazar said in an interview on ANC.

Eleazar noted that crimes decreased by at least 63 percent during President Duterte’s term, a feat which he said was achieved due to the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Citing data from the government’s Real NumbersPH platform, Eleazar said 12,536 of the over 293,000 drug suspects arrested since 2016 were high-value targets, which proved that the government is not focusing on street level pushers.

On allegations of abuses being committed by police during drug stings, Eleazar said these must be brought before proper venues.

“Hindi naman puwedeng sa media lang, kasi kung sa media lang, ano naman ang pupuntahan nun?” he said.

Eleazar reiterated that the PNP would not hesitate to impose sanctions on scalawags who are taking advantage of the drug war for their nefarious activities.

He said complaints against police officers must be supported by evidence and not based on allegations.

“Based on my observation, maraming mga kaso tayo laban sa kapulisan na wala namang ebidensya,” Eleazar said.

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said his department is about to finish the review of the 52 police operations that resulted in the deaths of drug suspects.

“We are wrapping up the review of the initial batch of cases turned over by the Internal Affairs Service of the PNP. If time will permit, we will also look into the other ‘nanlaban’ cases where the respondents were cleared for insufficiency of evidence,” Guevarra said.

The PNP and justice department agreed to review the killings of thousands of drug suspects attributed to the administration’s campaign against drugs.