MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte’s admission he could not curb illegal drugs in his term was an indication that his strategy has failed, opposition lawmakers said.
“From three months then six months, to one year, now, he wants to extend it to perpetuity. We should be able to comply with our commitments to solve certain major problems within a period of time,” Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said on Tuesday.
Lagman said the President’s statement appeared to be “preparing the people of his failure.”
He added: “That is an admission of failure because he considers the drug menace as a police matter. But more than a police matter, it is a poverty and health issue as experienced by other countries,” he said.
Magdalo partylist Rep. Gary Alejano said it was time the President revisits his war on drugs campaign and adopts a holistic strategy that includes all stakeholders.
He said Duterte should have learned his lesson from the anti-illegal drug campaign that he waged for two decades as mayor of Davao City.
“He’s been doing it in Davao for over two decades, hindi pa siya natuto doon. . . . Other countries have experienced this. They conducted a war on drugs and they failed, especially because they imposed this upon their citizens using harsh tactics. We should learn from that lesson that we can’t solve the problem by killing the suspects,” Alejano said.
Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat urged the public to be vigilant amid the President’s statement because this could be a “tactic to accelerate acceptance of a strong man rule.”
“All these are speculations, of course. We still cling to the hope that the government will respect the integrity of our democratic institutions. But we have to be always vigilant, always cautioning,” he said.
As to the idea to have some local government units install drop boxes where residents can leave the names of suspected drug users and pushers in their community, Lagman said this could “infringe on civil liberties because these are completely anonymous tips and there’s no way this can be validated.”
“You can ask the drop box a thousand times, you cannot get the answers,” Lagman said.
