Robredo’s drug war assessment based on ‘wild assumption’ - PDEA

The Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines yesterday graded the President’s policy against illegal drugs as a “massive failure”, giving the  administration the grade of 1/100 if the data will be considered as an exam.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino rebut Vice President Leni Robredo’s  assessment and called his data interpretation as a mere “wild assumption”


 As per the data from the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), Robredo said in her drug war report, that the approximate minimum consumption of shabu in the country per week is 3,000 kilograms, or about 156,000 kilograms a year.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino and VP Leni Robredo
(photo credit to owner)

However, Robredo surmises that the government only managed to seize 1,344.87 kilograms in 2019; 785.31 kilograms in 2018; and 1,053.91 kilograms in 2017. She added that this was a measely  1 percent of the total consumption of shabu in the country.

VP Robredo was able to come up her report after he was appointed as drug czar by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte though she only lasted for 18 days as a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).

PDEA Director Aquino, said the figures given by Robredo are mere estimates and does not comprise the whole number of the average drug consumption.

“Sabi ni Col. Caramat sa akin, that is a wild assumption. Hindi official figure ‘yan (Col. Caramat told me that is just a wild assumption. That’s not an official figure),” he said in an interview. Aquino is  referring to Col. Romeo Caramat Jr., acting director of PDEG.

“Hindi tugma na magcocompare ka ng estimate versus factual data. Mali ‘yung comparison ng ating Vice President na ‘yun (It’s not appropriate to compare an estimate versus factual data),” added Aquino, who explained the ICAD holds no official data on the average consumption of prohibited drugs in the country

Aquino said the estimate of PDEG was also too high.

Aqunio reiterated that the barometer for the success of the drug war is instead measured by the operational accomplishments, villages cleared of drugs, a lower crime volume, and the satisfaction of Filipinos in the anti-drug campaign.

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Report from PDI