The
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) recently released the latest stats on their Anti-Drug campaign. They are using the hashtag #RealNumbersPH to show that President Duterte's War on Drugs is effective in reducing the number of crimes.
Part of the stats they released is to address the question about EJK or extra-judicial killing.
But before we go to the details. Let's look at PDEA's stats about illegal drugs in the Philippines.
There are an estimated 4 million drug users in the country and the Philippine illegal drug market is estimated to be a P120 Billion industry.
Of those 4 million users, 1,266,966 have surrendered. This is estimated to be 26.45% of the total drug market. 88,940 of those who surrendered are drug pushers. Reducing the number of drug users and pushers have resulted in a 28.57% reduction in crime from July 2016 to March 2017.
Here are the stats showing they seized 1,645 kilos of shabu from July 1, 2016 to April 20, 2017. Almost a fourfold increase compared to 2015. The stats for 2017 is showing a lot less and I'm assuming this is due to less drugs on the streets and not because they stopped their campaign.
The value of the drug seized by PDEA is a staggering P14.49 billion.
The price of shabu has gone up by more than 100% during President
Duterte's administration due to the number of shabus seized cutting off
the supply. The price of shabu has also gone up because it's now riskier
to be a drug pusher, so it just the pushers will require a higher
prices for the increased risk of being caught.
The police have conducted 53,503 operations and arrested 64,917 people. During their anti-drug operation, 2,692 have died.
Now the real question on everyone's mind is, how many of those killed where EJKs or Extra-Judicial Killings?
According to PDEA, there were 9,432 homicide cases being investigated. 1,187 or 19.6% of those homicides are drug-related and have already been investigated. 1,894 or 20.1% of those are non-drug related and 5,691 or 60.3% are still under investigation.
So, was there really EJKs? According to PDEA, those cases are still under investigation.
So now the question is, is Duterte's War on Drugs effective?
According to PDEA and the Sept 2016 SWS survey. 54% are very satisfied with the Duterte Administration's war on drugs and 30 are somewhat satisfactory.
This rating is probably due the the reduction in the number of crimes in the Philippines where there was a decrease of 11% in crime volume according to the states by the Philippine National Police or PNP.
The PNP also reported a 28.57% decrease in index crime.
If you're wondering why there's a difference in the number above and below. Crime volume is the total number of crime during the period measured.
The Philippine Statistics Authority defines index crimes as: crimes
which are sufficiently significant and which occur with sufficient
regularity to be meaningful." Included in this category are murder,
homicide, robbery, theft, carnapping, and physical injury.
Non-index crimes are those that involve violations of special laws and ordinances.
The Duterte administration realizes that the illegal drug situation in the Philippines is also a public health problem. The Department of Health (DOH) have accredited 48 drug abuse and treatment rehabilitation centers across the country. Out of the 1,266,966 who surrendered, 10,500 have been rehabilitated and ready to go back to society.
The plan going forward is to have an inter-agency committee on the anti-drug campaign.
I'm pretty sure there will be supporters and detractors on the stats posted by PDEA. As with any government stats, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. It is up to you to be vigilant about these numbers and make sure they are correct.
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