MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said his administration was “hitting the drug trade at the highest level and at the lowest level” after his “bloodless” war against illegal drugs showed results with P62 billion worth of shabu seized in the last three years.
The President, during his visit to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) National Headquarters in Quezon City, inspected over P8.87 billion worth of recovered “floating shabu” weighing more than 1.3 tons, recovered in the waters of Zambales, Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, and Cagayan.
“So, that is what we are continuing to do. We are hitting the drug trade at the highest level and at the lowest level. And we are beginning to see some measure of success, we must continue this,” Marcos said in his remarks.
“The new concept of the war against drugs is working. So, we will continue down that vein. And I think we are beginning to see the good effects of that new policy,” he added.
The President directed law enforcement agencies to keep the fight against illegal drugs peaceful.
He said the government was also strengthening prevention and rehabilitation, including “high police presence at the lowest level.”
“And I continue to encourage all the Drug Board authorities, the PDEA authorities, and of course, the police that we must continue with the war against drugs. But we keep it peaceful – we do it in a peaceful way,” Marcos said.
“It has been described as a bloodless war on drugs. And this is what we are aiming for. But nonetheless, despite the fact that we do not kill people that are just suspected of having anything to do with drugs, instead of doing that, we are handling the drug problem in a different way,” he added.
