Eleazar: Drug war being won despite ‘ninja cops’

MANILA, Philippines — Despite controversies hounding the Philippine National Police (PNP), particularly the issue of the so-called “ninja cops,” the government is winning the war on drugs.

The PNP chief of the directorial staff, Major Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, made this assertion on Monday, saying three years of waging the drug war had resulted in hundreds of thousands of drug surrenderers and a reduction in the country’s crime volume.

“Without the war on drugs, these people (drug surrenderers) would not have a second chance in life and could have deteriorated further and contaminated more people,” said Eleazar, who formerly headed the National Capital Region Police Office.

He added that the war on narcotics had also resulted in the arrest and neutralization of tens of thousands of pushers who would have turned more innocent people into addicts and wreaked havoc on society.

“In effect, the war on drugs has slowed down, if not completely arrested, the spread of illegal drugs all over, (across) all income segments of the population. If not for the war on drugs, the majority of our population would have become like useless zombies and hasten the collapse of this country,” Eleazar said.

60-percent decline

“In the first 39 months of President Duterte’s administration, crime volume nationwide declined by about 60 percent compared to the last 39 months of the Aquino administration,” he stressed in a statement.

The popularity of President Duterte and even other officials, he said, was always a good barometer for an administration’s performance.

“Duterte’s [consistent] rating [of] very good to excellent [in] his past 39 months as President clearly means the people are happier now than ever before,” Eleazar added.