Senator Franklin Drilon on Sunday Oct. 8 said the administration’s war on drugs must be backed up with accurate data to help the government achieve its aims.
“We should shift to data-driven policy-making, especially in this war against drugs, instead of generating suspect data for the sole purpose of backing up policies already made,” the Manila Bulletin quoted Drilon as saying.
“The law provides that the data produced by the PSA [Philippine Statistics Authority] shall be the official and controlling statistics of the government,” he added.
This came after Philippine National Police (PNP) Spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos said Friday that the PNP has only recorded one extrajudicial killing case under the current administration.
“The PNP protects every individual’s right to life. To allay or remove their fear, let it be known that under the present administration, there is only one case of extrajudicial killing or EJK for the period July 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017,” PNP said in its official statement.
Drilon, however, noted the recent cases of Kian delos Santos, 17, and Carl Arnaiz, 19, whom the National Bureau of Investigation and Arnaiz’s family, respectively, said police allegedly killed.
“The police themselves have admitted that close to 4,000 have died because they ‘fought back.’ An EJK is when you did not subject the person to the justice system, and with no trial, decide on guilt and execute the person. That’s a case of EJK,” Rappler quoted Drilon as saying.
Conflict over data has also caused the firing of Dangerous Drugs Board Chairman Benjamin Reyes last May, who said that there were 1.8 million drug dependents in the Philippines, clashing with President Rodrigo Duterte’s and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s 4.7 million claims.
Photo credit: UNTV
