INCOMING Sen. Raffy Tulfo yesterday said the next administration should continue the “aggressive” war on drugs of the Duterte administration, but not to the point of being “bloody.”
Instead, Tulfo said the administration of president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should focus more on rehabilitating suspected drug users and pushers who surrender or are arrested.
“Huwag na dapat maging (It should not be) bloody because for me that doesn’t make sense,” Tulfo told members of the media in a chance interview before he attended the orientation for new senators at the Senate.
Tulfo said Duterte’s all-out campaign against illegal drugs was good as the number of committed crimes decreased nationwide, but he lamented that many of the suspected drug users and pushers who surrendered eventually ended up killed.
“Napansin ko maraming nag-surrender…Pero after that, pinakawalan din, sinusulat ang pangalan, malalaman naman natin bulagta na. I will advise na kapag may sumurrender, agad-agad willing ba sila magpa -rehab? Dapat mayroong libreng rehab (I noticed that a lot of users and pushers surrendered. But after that, their names were only taken and then we will learn that they have been killed, I suggest that those who are willing to be rehabilitated be given free rehabilitation),” he added.
Duterte promised to end the drug menace in three to six months’ time upon his assumption as president in June 2016.
As a result, law enforcers became too eager to totally carry out Duterte’s campaign promise of stopping the problems on illegal drugs, with many suspected users and pushers, and even innocent civilians, ended up being killed.
As of April this year, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said law enforcers have killed 6,248 suspected drug users and pushers, and arrested 341,494 suspected drug users and pushers in 236,620 operations.
PDEA also said only 25,061 of the 42,045 barangays nationwide are “drug free.”
