Vice President Leni Robredo said if she wins the presidency next year, the fight against illegal drugs in the Philippines will remain as intense as the current administration's anti-narcotics campaign but will not be as bloody.
"Ganun katindi pero sa ibang paraan (It will be as intense but with a different approach)," Robredo said when asked during a press briefing Friday, Oct. 29, if her campaign against narcotics will be as intense as President Duterte's war on drugs.
The Presidential aspirant said her approach will be "heavy on prevention and heavy on rehabilitation," unlike the current administration's war on drugs approach which is too "heavy on enforcement."
Serving as a co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) in 2019, Robredo said she was able to "witness upclose the real problem" as far as the fight against narcotics is concerned.
Before her tenure in the committee ended, she gave a comprehensive recommendation to improve the ICAD starting from its system, which, she believes, will contribute to the entire path it will take towards enforcement.
She argued that instead of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), whose mandate focuses on enforcement, the ICAD should be chaired by the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) to create a "more holistic" approach in solving the country's drug problems.
"Hindi puwedeng enforcement lang, kasi nakita natin over the past five years, sobrang daming namatay pero ang question, nawala ba? Ang sagot, hindi (It should not be enforcement alone because we saw over the past five years, many were killed but the question is, did the problem disappear? The answer is no)," Robredo stressed.
"So sa akin ang paniniwala ko kung DDB yung umupo na chair, ang plano niya hindi lang patay, patay, patay. Ang plano niya talagang very comprehensive, heavy on prevention, heavy on rehabilitation (So, I believe that if the DDB heads the committee. The plan will not be about deaths. The plan is really comprehensive, heavy on prevention, heavy on rehabilitation)," she added.
The opposition leader also noted that the government must learn from other countries who resorted to violence but were unsuccessful in eradicating their illegal drug problems but those countries, who chose a holistic approach, succeeded.