Gamboa hails admin’s evolving tactics vs illegal drugs

MANILA, Philippines — The anti-narcotics campaign under the Duterte administration has evolved as it focused on the reduction of illegal drug supplies in the country, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said on Tuesday.

“First-time pumasok ang Duterte admin, it (drug war) was very relentless. It was street level. Ang inuna is to stop yung demand. And later on, nag-evolve as you can see now meron tayong apprehension by billions of pesos which is practically supply reduction so nag-evolve na siya under the Philippine anti-drug campaign strategy which is being supervised the DDB (Dangerous Drugs Board),” Gamboa said in an online press briefing when asked about the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) report on allegations against the PNP.

(The first time the Duterte administration started, the drug war was very relentless. It was street level. First, they stopped the demand. And later on, it evolved, as you can see how we made arrests and confiscated billions of pesos that practically reduced supply, so it evolved under  the Philippine anti-drug campaign strategy which is being supervised by the DDB.)

The UNHRC published a 26-page report last week, underscoring that the Philippine government’s handling of drug war killings is near impunity.

The report found that there are “falsified” pieces of evidence used in post-operational reports. The UNHRC also uncovered that police “repeatedly recovered guns bearing the same serial numbers from different victims in different locations.”

Saying he respects the UN body’s opinion, Gamboa noted that they also filed cases against police officers violating the protocols of the campaign against illegal drugs.

“‘Yung allegation ng UN, well ganun naman palagi, they always accuse the PNP. They always accuse the Philippine government na maraming human rights violations,” he said.

(The allegation of UN, well it happens a lot, they always accuse the PNP of wrongdoing. They always accuse the Philippine government of human rights violations.)

“We followed the procedure in doing all of these things of course appropriate cases were filed dun sa mga policemen na hindi naging maayos yung pagkampanya laban sa droga,” the top police official added.

(We followed the procedure in doing all of these things of course appropriate cases were filed against police officers who are not doing an excellent job in the campaign against illegal drugs.)

Under the UNHRC report, official figures showed that since President Rodrigo Duterte launched the bloody drug war in 2016 at least 8,663 people were killed.