The bloody war on drugs and extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration gave rise to more crimes in the country, two presiding officers of the House Quad Comm said Wednesday.
Co-chairman Rep. Dan Fernandez of Laguna and lead chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte made the statement in response to the assertion of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that there are more crimes now than when he was the nation’s top leader.
Fernandez, chairman of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, said official data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) do not support Duterte’s claim.
“Nabudol na naman tayo. Malinaw na mas mababa ang krimen ngayon kumpara noong panahon ng dating administrasyon,” Fernandez said.
Citing a PNP report, Fernandez said index crimes from July 1, 2022 to July 28, 2024 dropped to 83,059 from 217,830 during the same period in the first two years of Duterte’s term from 2016 to 2018, or a decrease of 61.87 percent.
Cases of murder, homicide, physical injuries and rape decreased by 55.69 percent; while the number of cases of robbery, theft, car theft and other crimes against property fell by 66.81 to 41,420 from 124,799 during the same comparative periods, he said.
Crime clearance efficiency increased by 27.13 percent while the crime solution efficiency rate rose by 10.28 percent, he said, quoting the PNP report.
For his part, Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said the PNP also reported drug seizures worth P35.6 billion and the arrest of 122,309 drug suspects.
Barbers and Fernandez said the Marcos administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, unlike Duterte’s anti-drug war, “is bloodless.”
“The present national leadership values and respects the sanctity of life,” Barbers said.
Fernandez said the administration’s anti-drug drive “is not likely to elicit anger, resentment and a desire for revenge on the part of our people.”
“It focuses on apprehending suspects and rehabilitating them, instead of ‘neutralizing’ them,” he said, referring to the language used by Duterte’s anti-drug drive implementers.
Retired senior police officers have testified before Quad Comm that they understood the terms “neutralize” and “negate” to include killing suspects.
The terms were used by Duterte’s PNP chief and now Sen. Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa in a 2016 “command circular” issued to field commanders waging the war on drugs on the frontline.
Barbers said Duterte’s brutal war on drugs gave rise to more crimes.
“Ang isang action ay may kasunod na reaction. Kapag pinatay mo ang isang drug suspect, lalo na kung nadamay pa ang inosenteng kamag-anak o civilian, malamang sa hindi, may maghahangad sa pamilya ng namatayan ng paghihiganti,” he said.
“So, wala kang sinosolusyunan na problema, gumagawa ka pa ng bagong problema,” he said.
Fernandez said the much-hyped Duterte administration’s war on drugs targeted mostly low-level drug users and peddlers and only a few high-value suspects.
“Kaya libo-libo ang napatay, mahigit 20,000, halos lahat users lang na puwedeng ma-rehabilitate. Hindi naman tinamaan ‘yung malalaking drug lord,” he said.
He said the rumors and speculations then “were that some high-value suspects were targeted to eliminate competition.”
He pointed out that the Dutertes themselves were linked to a huge drug shipment in 2018.
Fernandez was referring to the testimony given to Quad Comm by former Customs agent Jimmy Guban, who claimed that Duterte’s son Paolo, a Davao City congressman, his son-in-law Manases Carpio, husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, and his economic adviser Michael Yang, a Chinese national, were allegedly behind an P11-billion drug contraband seized in Cavite.
Babers said drug-related activities the authorities have been exposing under the Marcos administration are tied to a criminal syndicate that flourished during the Duterte watch.
He cited the P6.3-billion shabu haul in a warehouse in Mexico town in Pampanga in September 2023 that was linked to several Chinese nationals associated with Yang.
“Aside from smuggling drugs, they faked documents to obtain Filipino passports and assume Filipino identity, which they used in illegally forming corporations as fronts for offshore gambling and buying large tracts of land and other assets to launder funds,” Barbers said.
“This crime gang that saw its heydays in the past is still casting a shadow over efforts of the Marcos leadership to stop criminal activities,” he said