The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) vowed Friday, Sept. 9, to explore other strategic measures that would further increase the agency’s conviction rate for illegal drug cases.

“To be frank, what I really want is a 100-percent conviction rate for all drug cases filed but this only happens in a perfect world so I will settle for the high conviction rates which we have at present. Of course, I am pleased with the numbers that we have been tallying. We have made leaps and bounds throughout the years with regards to legislation that aim to improve our capability to prosecute organized drug trafficking rings," PDEA Director General Wilkins M. Villanueva stated.

The PDEA’s case monitoring system reported 405,062 drug cases filed in court from calendar year 2002 to 2022. These cases include those filed by PDEA as well as other law enforcement agencies like the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

In a statement, PDEA said 28 percent or 114,610 of the total drug cases filed in court within the 10-year period have been resolved or have been handed out decisions by the judiciary.

From 2020 up to the present, PDEA has accounted for 1,668 of these resolved cases.

Out of these figures, 60.43 percent of those charged were convicted, 26.98 percent were acquitted, and 12.59 percent were dismissed.

The PDEA noted that the conviction rates increased with the introduction of the plea bargaining in drug cases in 2017.

“In the landmark case of Salvador Estipona vs. Judge Lobrigo (En Banc), G.R. No. 226679, August 15, 2017, the Supreme Court declared Section 23 of Republic Act (RA) 9165 – which prohibited plea bargaining in drug cases - to be unconstitutional. This ruling of the SC effectively allowed plea bargaining in drug cases,’’ PDEA said.

“The Supreme Court in Daan vs. Sandiganbayan, G.R. Nos. 163972-77; March 28, 2008 defined plea bargaining in criminal cases – such as drug cases - as 'a process whereby the accused and the prosecution work out a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval. This means that the litigation process is drastically shortened,'" it added.

The agency explained that plea bargaining allows the defendant to plead guilty to a lesser offense, or in cases when the accused faces a multi-count indictment, the accused may plead to only one or some of the counts of the indictment in return for a lighter sentence instead of a charge which carries a heavier penalty.

“We understand that the resolution of drug cases may drag on for years. Some of the cases resolved this year were filed two or three years ago, and so the results of resolved cases in any particular year may not reflect the quality of drug cases filed in the same year. This may be attributed to the large volume of drug cases filed in court. Even so, the statistics show that we are pointed in the right direction," Villanueva stated.