MANILA, Philippines — There is no need to change the government’s anti-drug strategy when law enforcement agencies are able to seize huge amounts of illegal drugs, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday.
During a briefing after checking on the inventory of the crystal meth or shabu confiscated in Alitagtag town of Batangas province, Marcos made this assertion after being asked if the high yield would necessitate a change in the strategies being implemented.
The government got its biggest ever drug bust on Monday after around two tons of shabu were found in a passenger van which was flagged down at a checkpoint at Alitagtag’s Barangay Pinagkurusan. With this high yield, Marcos believes his administration’s approach to the drug war is the best yet.
“No, quite the contrary, why will we change? Look at the success that we have gained, as I said not only this 1.8 tons, the many, many tons that we have already seized. So it’s much more than it has been in the past, so it is the most successful approach to the drug war so far,” Marcos told reporters.
“So why will we change it? We won’t change it, we’ll continue to do what we’re doing, of course, I cannot explain to you the details of what we are doing, but we will continue to do what we are doing. And that’s the reason, I think that so far we have been able to see such a big amount of generally shabu or methamphetamine,” he added.
According to the President, there is no easy solution to the drug menace in the country, but the government will continue working on gathering intelligence reports from local sources and international allies so that operations can be implemented, and arrested violators will face air-tight cases.
“Kailangan niyo ring maintindihan, ang mga drug syndicate, ‘pagka nahulihan, parang cost of doing business nila ‘yan eh, kasama na sa kalkulasyon nila, ‘Once in a while mahuhuli tayo, so pero malaki pa rin ang kita.’ So tuloy-tuloy lang [tayo], we cannot, there is no tinatawag na one single answer tungkol dito, there’s no silver bullet to this,” Marcos explained.
(You need to understand that drug syndicates, even if their products are seized by the government, it’s part of their cost of doing business and calculations, “Once in a while, we’ll get caught but we’ll continue earning.” So we just need to continue this, because there is no single answer for this, there’s no silver bullet to this.)
“Kailangan talaga kayod (We need to work hard), we have to operate, we have to gather intelligence, we have to coordinate with Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization), we have to coordinate with the intelligence and drug agencies of other countries around, of Asean, of Asia, kung saan man nanggagaling (wherever these may come from) because this is an international crime,” he added.
Marcos also said he was sure that the illegal drugs came from another country.
“The one thing that’s clear, pinasok ito, hindi ito galing sa Pilipinas. Hindi ito niluto dito sa Pilipinas, galing ito sa labas. Ngayon ‘yong ruta, kung saan nanggaling ‘yon, ngayon pinag-aaralan pa natin at iniimbestigahan pa,” he said.
(The one thing that’s clear, it was brought into the Philippines. It was not cooked here. Now with the route, as to where it came from, we are still studying and investigating that.)
“There is no other solution but to keep doing these [operations] […] hanggang it is not — para magawang napakahirap magpasok ng drugs na sa Pilipinas, [at sabihin ng sindikato na] ”Wag na nating gawin, dadalhin natin sa ibang lugar.’ (Until it becomes very difficult to smuggle drugs into the Philippines, and the syndicates say, ‘Let’s not do it anymore, let’s take it elsewhere.’)
“That is the situation that we are hoping to achieve, pero the only way to get that is to continue to prosecute the drug war, but well within the law, well within so that cases can be filed,” he added.
Earlier, Marcos touted his administration’s accomplishment: securing the largest drug bust without loss of life on any side.
READ: Bongbong Marcos to take ‘slightly different’ approach in fight against drugs
“I would like also to point out that this is the biggest shipment of shabu na nahuli natin, but not one person died, walang namatay, walang nagputukan, walang nasaktan, basta’t in-operate natin nang dahan-dahan,” he added.
(I would also like to point out that this is the biggest shipment of shabu which we apprehended, but not one person died, no one died, no exchange of fire happened, nobody was hurt, but we operated it slowly, surely.)