De Lima relieved by fall of antidrug drive rating

Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE / NOY MORCOSO III

Detained Senator Leila de Lima heaved a sigh of relief that more Filipinos are starting to realize that killing drug suspects is not a solution to the drug menace in the country.

“The latest SWS survey showing an 11-point drop in the public satisfaction rating on the Duterte regime’s war on drugs is a very significant (and relieving) development,” De Lima said in a handwritten statement Wednesday.

READ: SWS: Public satisfaction with war on drugs falls

“Ibig sabihin, dumadami na ang mga kababayan natin na namumulat sa katotohanan na mali ang pamamaraan ng Pangulong Duterte sa pagsugpo sa problema sa droga,” she said.

The senator was reacting to the Social Weather Stations survey conducted from March 25 to 28 which showed that the public net satisfaction with the government’s war on drugs suffered an 11-point drop from 77 percent in December last year to 66 percent in March.

De Lima insisted that summary killing of suspected drug offenders irrespective of their guilt “is absolutely wrong, hence, unacceptable.”

“It is against the laws of men and of God,” she said.

The rising statistics of innocents also being killed by roving death squads, she said, makes this EJK (extrajudicial killing) phenomenon “much more reprehensible.”

The Duterte administration has denied summarily executing drug suspects. At the same time, the Philippine National Police has shown that over one-million drug users and pushers have either surrendered or been arrested alive, belying allegations of EJKs.

The government has also put up a mega rehabilitation center that can accommodate 10,000 drug users, while the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology cited jails packed and overflowing with arrested drug offenders.

READ: What EJKs? Jails bursting, says BJMP

“Those who advocate for, encourage and effectuate this extreme solution distort people’s sense of right and wrong and destroy the very moral fabric of our society. To me, they are the real enemies of the people. Let us reject and fight them,” the senator said.

“Right, and not power, is might,” added Lima, who has been charged and detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Quezon City for alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade, which she has repeatedly denied.

A neophyte senator, De Lima initiated a Senate probe on the rise of alleged EJKs and summary killings in the country under the present leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte. CBB/rga