Assessing the Cost of Duterte’s War on Drugs

Screengrab from PCIJ official Facebook account.

CHEERS TO the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for a quick assessment of the record so far of the anti-illegal drugs campaign of the Duterte administration that the Philippine National Police (PNP) is currently implementing.

The PCIJ piece, “Duterte’s war: Breaking Bad? Big kill of small fry, puny drugs haul, defies PNP rules,” by Vino Lucero and Malou Mangahas published on June 25, highlighted PNP data on its anti-drug operations from January 2010 to June 2016 and compared it to PNP data on the drug war during Duterte’s first 21 days in office.

The comparative analysis found that while Duterte’s war on drugs has inflicted more casualties (213), arrested more suspects (3,005) and recorded more people voluntarily surrendering (116,466) from July 1 to 21, it has yielded only a small amount of seized illegal drugs and other substances relative to the human casualties.  The report pointed out that drugs seized in a period of six years and six months—from the last six months of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and during the six-year term of former President Benigno S. Aquino III—the PNP seized a total of P24.89 billion worth of drugs (shabu, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, ephedrine, as well as acetone, chloroform, rugby, etc).

It may be too early to compare the success of the campaign because the Duterte administration has had barely a month to pursue it. Based on the average value per 21 days of confiscated drugs during the six years and six month period from the Arroyo and Aquino administrations, the Duterte administration should have seized P220.54 million worth of illegal drugs in the 21 days of its anti-drug campaign.

The PCIJ report points the public to another means with which to assess the success of Duterte’s efforts to end the drug menace in the country and suggests another track of investigation to other news organizations. Press should ask the police to determine the value of the drugs yielded in the Duterte anti-drug campaign.

PCIJ also reviewed PNP rules and protocols during operations as mandated by the 2013 Revised PNP Manual on Operational Procedures.

The report also came with a sidebar showing the amounts and the kinds of illegal drugs and other substances seized by the PNP from 2010 to June 2016.