Lacson urges PNP, PDEA to change drug war tactics

Senator Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday urged the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to change its “tactics” following a survey showing fewer Filipinos are satisfied with President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

“I think the tactics employed is starting to reach its saturation point as far as the public is concerned,” Lacson, former chief of the PNP, said in a text message.

“While the overall strategy is still effective, I think it's time that the PDEA and PNP should make some adjustments in their tactical offensive,” he said.

Lacson said killings by "riding in tandem" and other similar methods have become “too predictable.”

“The public have grown tired of hearing the same modus operandi over and over again. The police must therefore show solutions of these DUI's (deaths under investigation) and arrests must be made in considerable degree,” he said.

Small percentage

A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted March 25 to 28 showed that net satisfaction with the anti-drug campaign is now at a “very good” +66, an 11-point drop and a grade lower than the “excellent” +77 it received in December last year.

Of this number, 78 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the Duterte administration anti-drug war, seven points lower from December.

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto downplayed the survey, saying an 11-point drop is just a “small percentage.”

“It’s a small percentage. Most probably it went to undecided and not against. Not worth worrying about,” Sotto said.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan of the minority bloc, for his part, said reports of police abuses have “adversely affected public support” for the war on drugs.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, also of the minority, said the government’s campaign against illegal drugs has turned into a “national nightmare.”

“As long as the government's anti-drug campaign continues to create a climate of fear, impunity and killing, this war is a losing battle with less and less supporters,” she said.

“It's time for the public to wake up from this national nightmare and set things right by holding all those responsible for these killings accountable alongside the implementation of a public health agenda on the anti-drugs campaign,” Hontiveros added. —ALG, GMA News