The government's campaign against illegal drugs is now focusing on demand reduction, rehabilitation and reintegration, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) spokesperson Derrick Carreon said on Thursday, Oct. 13.

While he admitted that there are still drug syndicates operating in the country, Carreon said they have been exhausting all the efforts to come up with the best ways to address the issue.

“Alright this is exactly the point. What matters here is just like in the recent operation of the PNP (Philippine National Police) where almost a ton of shabu was recovered is that it shows that there is still a demand for the illegal drugs and drug syndicates will continue sending to the country (illegal drugs). In order to fill that demand and this brings to the fore the importance also of putting equal emphasis on demand reduction as well as rehabilitation and reintegration),’’ Carreon explained.

Currently, Carreon said the illegal drugs situation in the country remains good, revealing that out of the 42,046 barangays in the Philippines, only 9,414 remain drug-affected.

He asserted that the percentage of the nationwide drug-affectation now is only at 22.39 percent with the mother program of which is going after the big-time drug syndicates.

Despite these figures, Carreon did not deny that the Philippines remains both a drug consuming country and still a potential transshipment point of illegal drugs to other neighboring countries which have an equally high demand for these dangerous drugs.

“But again as explained by (PDEA) Director General Wilkins Villanueva, rest assured that we are in a good situation where the government is on top of the situation,’’ Carreon continued.

On the President’s order, Carreon disclosed that the anti-illegal drug campaign of the government is geared towards ‘the big-time syndicates.’

Citing the latest operations, Carreon enumerated that on July 3 there were two successive operations, one that took place in Banawe Street in Quezon City where 40 kilos of shabu worth P272 million was confiscated. On the same day, this was followed by another operation that yielded 220 kilos of shabu worth P1.496 billion in Cavite.

On Aug. 12, Carreon said that the anti-narcotics operatives ‘moved up north, another project still connected to this COPLAN Whisperer which is our mother COPLAN involving big members of drug syndicates.’’

He stated that there was one operation in Poro, San Fernando, La Union where authorities seized 40 kilos of shabu worth P272 million, followed by 360 kilos of shabu confiscated in another buy-bust operation in Sunshine Village in Pozzorubio, Pangasinan.

"We are thankful that again, we were able to intercept these huge volumes of dangerous drugs but then if we look at the daily reports that are coming in or being turned in by our operating units not just us but even the PNP because we also monitor their operations. If you would peruse from the ground during the implementation of daily operations, there are no volumes amounting to no more than 200 grams arising from daily operations of our units as well as that of the PNP,’’ Carreon said.