Despite the continuous rise of the number of deaths in the drug war, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is still unsatisfied with the outcome of the police’s efforts in its anti-illegal drug campaign. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net
Despite a continuous rise in the number of deaths in the drug war, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is still unsatisfied with the outcome of the police’s efforts in their anti-illegal drug campaign.
“Kulang pa (It’s not enough),” Dela Rosa responded wryly when asked to give an assessment of the government’s ongoing crackdown against illegal drugs. President Rodrigo Duterte gave the PNP six months, starting July, to solve the drug problem and criminality in the country.
“Sabi ni Presidente ‘zero tolerance’ tayo sa drugs. Malaki pa bubunuin natin (The President said we should implement ‘zero tolerance’ towards drugs. We still have a long way to go). I’m worried we’re running out of time,” Dela Rosa said in a press briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday.
Latest data from the PNP showed that drug suspects killed in anti-narcotics operations have reached 900 while around 1,170 individuals have been killed vigilante-style.
The police chief said he will order the PNP to triple its efforts now that the number of drug users and pushers surrendering to the authorities remained at 600,000.
READ: 895 dead, almost 13,000 nabbed in anti-drug operations–PNP
The PNP targets to meet 1.8 million ‘surrenderees’ based on the statistics from the Dangerous Drugs Board.
“Gano’n kataas ‘yung aming hinihingi, 1.8 million pero ngayon nasa 600,000 pa lang. Medyo nag-plateau. Hindi na umaakyat. So we need more surrenderees pero kahapon madagdagan ‘yon dahil meron tayong more than 10,000 nagsurrender doon sa General Santos so baka madagdagan yon,” he said.
(We are aiming for 1.8 million but for now it’s still at 600,000. It reached a plateau. So we need more surrenderees but yesterday 10,000 surrendered in General Santos so the numbers will go up.)
At the end of September, Dela Rosa said he will ask Deputy Dir. Gen. Benjamin Magalong, deputy police chief for operations, and Chief Supt. Camilo Cascolan, directorate for operations chief, to present an assessment of the first three months of the drug war./rga
READ: War on drugs exceeds gains of first 6 months of 2016 – PDEA