Albayalde admits: PNP not even halfway done with drug problem

It has been almost two years since President Rodrigo Duterte took office and began waging his war against illegal drugs, but the head of the Philippine National Police admitted they have made less than 50 percent headway in the problem.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said that illegal drug problem still persists despite the accomplishments of the police force as he cited that a number of street pushers were still being arrested.

"Baka wala pa tayo sa 50 percent nga sa problema natin sa illegal drugs dahil up to now, despite of our accomplishments and our operations, napakarami pa rin nating nahuhuli, halos araw araw," Albayalde said in a weekly forum in San Juan City.

"In fact, meron pa ring mga na-e-engkwentro because of the anti-illegal drugs operations at meron pa rin naman tayong mga incidents of robbery lalong lalo na yung akyat bahay so ito sana yung pwede nating ma-improve at maibigay sa ating mga kababayan, when they feel safe and they can sleep soundly inside their homes," he added.

The country's top cop also admitted that police force under the Duterte administration could not completely rid of the illegal drug problem but only minimize it.

"Yung minimal yes, probably maramdaman natin kasi ngayon naramdaman na natin. What's important here is naramdaman natin yung pagbabago...What we foresee is even during this year until next year maramdaman na natin talaga yung pagbabago, pag-konti," Albayalde said.

"Tama, sinabi natin hindi natin pwede i-zero 'yan. There will always be users but kung matanggal natin yung supply then mawawala na yung mga users. They have to settle with sigarilyo na lang," he added.

According to the latest update of the #RealNumbersPH, a total of 4,279 drug suspects have been killed, while 143,335 others have been arrested from July 1, 2016 to May 15, 2018.

Meanwhile, a total of 143,335 drug personalities were arrested in 99,485 anti-drug operations conducted during the same period.

The consolidated data on the anti-illegal drug campaign also showed that a total of 2,678.61 kilograms of shabu worth P14.34 billion have been seized while the total value of seized drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals and laboratory equipment were pegged at P20.77 billion. —JST, GMA News