Duterte fires Dangerous Drugs Board chief for ‘contradicting’ stats

DUTERTE ARRIVES FROM RUSSIA / MAY 24, 2017President Rodrigo Duterte arrives from his visit to Russia at NAIA Terminal 2.INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

President Rodrigo Duterte fired the chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board for allegedly using contradicting statistics.

“And I would like to put to task publicly this (Benjamin) Reyes. You know five years ago, Santiago who was the PDEA chief gave us a figure of three million,” Duterte said after arriving in Manila from Moscow.

“Ang binigay ni Reyes sa chairman sa Dangerous Board, ‘yung accomplishment ni Bato ng PNP. That’s 1.8. And dala-dala ng babae was 1.8. When I have been telling everybody, everything that there’s about four million drug addict(s),” the President said.

The Dangerous Drugs Board has been using a 2015 survey that says there were 1.8 million drug users in the country.

“You’re fired today. Get out of the service,” Duterte said. “You do not contradict your own government…You’re just a civilian member of a board.”

Duterte said Reyes is not an “implementor of the law.”

“The correct count is the police and the PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency),” Duterte said.

In an interview with ANC on Tuesday, Reyes used the statistics of 1.8 million drug users but he also reportedly said that they have information that the number can go up to 3 million or 4 million.