THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency yesterday said 33 elected officials were among 1,121 high-value targets arrested in the anti-drugs campaign since last January.
PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva, during the Senate hearing on the proposed P2.7 billion budget of the agency for 2021, said aside from the elected officials, 54 government employees, 11 uniformed personnel and 57 foreigners were also nabbed.
Of the 1,121 total, 16 were members of drug syndicates, 109 were drug den maintainers, 447 were arrested in high impact anti-drug operations, 364 were on the list of targets, 29 were on the wanted list, 1 was celebrity and 1 was a member of an armed group.
Villanueva said PDEA also conducted more than 18, 00p anti-drug operations from January to July this year that resulted in the arrest of 26,000 drug users and pushers while 19,876 of the 42,045 barangays nationwide have been deemed cleared of the narcotics trade.
He said 14,491 barangays are still classified as drug affected but added this is lower than the more than 24,000 barangays affected by the illegal drugs trade in 2017.
Of the barangays with illegal drugs problem, Villanueva said 232 are considered “seriously affected,” meaning they are areas where drug dens are located while 5,513 are “slightly affected.”
Barangays included in the “slightly affected” category only have drug users.
He said there are four million drug users in the country today, 117 local drug groups and 3,625 target-listed drug personalities.
Villanueva told senators that while the campaign against the illegal drugs trade is “doable,” the agency needs all the cooperation from local officials, especially barangays affected by the narcotics trade.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson questioned what he said was the “minuscule” budget allotted by the government in its 2021strategy to combat the illegal drugs trade.
Lacson noted that while the anti-drug campaign is a priority of the Duterte administration, only P2 billion has been allotted for the Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy (PADS), which was institutionalized under an executive order issued by President Duterte in 2018.
Lacson, who served as former PNP chief before running for senator, said of the budget allotted to PADS, P1.2 billion will go to the Department of Health and P664 million to the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Of the P664 million allotted to the DILG, he said P546 million will go to the PNP.
“It seems that the programs, activities and projects were not synchronized in the overall strategy against illegal drugs. Why is it that Executive Order 66 calling for the PADS was done if its activities were not synchronized? Is the President tiring in the battle against illegal drugs?” Lacson said.
Dangerous Drugs Board Undersecretary Benjamin Reyes told Lacson they coordinated with more than 50 agencies, which submitted their work and financial plans for the PADS.
But he added only the work and financial plans of four agencies were included in next year’s National Expenditure Program, which was then submitted by the Budget Department to Congress.
