DDB's Santiago mulls new survey on number of drug users in PHL

Newly-appointed Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Dionisio Santiago on Saturday said he is eyeing a new survey to determine the latest number of drug dependents in the Philippines.

Santiago said in a media forum in Quezon City that he may encourage a volunteer group to conduct the research with the DDB's own research team.

"That should be done and this time it should be really 'pag nilatag 'yung survey system ang ihaharap mo 'yung marunong sa statistics," he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte sacked Santiago's predecessor, Benjamin Reyes, for announcing in a forum attended by United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard in May that there were only 1.8 million drug users in the Philippines citing the 2015 Nationwide Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse in the Philippines.

Duterte had been saying that there were four million drug users in the country.

Santiago had said in a recent television interview that it was safe to say that there were three million drug users in the country.

The new DDB chairman released the same figure five years ago.

Higher number?

Santiago said that despite the aggressive anti-illegal drugs campaign of the Duterte administration, the number of drug dependents may increase based on the new survey that will be conducted.

"Kahit successful ang offensive mo pwedeng tumaas ang numbers eh. Halimbawa kung dati hindi ka seryoso nanloloko ka eh kung ngayon seryoso ka na sa trabaho mas effective ka madaming huli, so instead of bringing down the numbers it will increase dahil seryoso ka na hindi ka na nambobola. Karamihan diyan pinapababa para hindi ma-relieve e," the DDB chair said.

"Nasampolan si Benjie Reyes lumihis lang ng konti sa alam ng presidente e," he added. —ALG, GMA News