President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (left), former president Rodrigo Duterte (Facebook)

President Marcos' anti-narcotics campaign resulted to the confiscation of more illegal drugs but with significantly less bloodshed compared to the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte. 

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, overall chairman of the House quad-committee (quad-comm) highlighted this detail during the 10th hearing of the mega-panel on Thursday, Nov. 7.

In a prepared speech, Barbers said that the current administration’s anti-drug drive netted P49.82 billion worth of drugs and covered at least 800 drug-related deaths from 2022 to 2024.

He compared this to Duterte's first two years in office from 2016 to 2018, wherein P25.19 billion worth of drugs were seized in the backdrop of over 20,000 alleged drug personalities slain.

Barbers said the figures were culled from official reports obtained by the quad-comm from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and other concerned government agencies. 

“Those statistics clearly refutes the claim by some quarters that the previous bloody drug war was a more effective approach or strategy than the bloodless anti-drug campaign," the Mindanaoan said.

"While both administrations aimed to reduce drug-related crimes, their methods and resulting outcomes reflect significant strategic and operational differences,” he noted.

During the first two years of the Duterte administration, authorities were able to seize or confiscate 3,294.44 kilograms (kg) of "shabu" (methamphetamine) and other drugs valued at P25.19 billion. 

However, in the first two years of President Marcos' administration, the PNP, PDEA, NBI and other concerned agencies seized a total of 12,183.65 kilograms of illegal drugs, including 6,481.16 kgs of shabu, 75.69 kgs of cocaine, 115,081 of ecstacy pills, and 5,626 kgs of marijuana. The total value is P49.82 billion. 

“The recent drug [confiscations] were almost double the value of drugs seized during the previous administration’s first two years in office, indicating that the larger volume and variety of drugs seized under the current dispensation was due to enhanced intelligence and operational precision, focusing more on major drug trafficking networks rather than street-level dealers,” Barbers said.

Based on official reports, the previous administration’s bloody war on drugs resulted to 4,540 suspects killed by the PNP, while 16,355 drug personalities died at the hands of unidentified assailants, often labeled as “riding in tandem” attackers.

In 2018, because of numerous complaints from human rights groups and families of victims of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) and alleged police’s inaction on said cases, the PNP under its then-chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa lumped all drug-related killings, totaling 23,327 deaths, as “homicide under investigation” (HCIUs) cases. 

Under the present dispensation, and with the figures sourced from former PNP chief Benjamin Acorda Jr.,  and the Dahas Project of the UP Third World Studies, the data indicated 73 deaths from legitimate operations and an additional 822 drug-related killings.

"The lower number of casualties suggests a shift toward more targeted, less lethal anti-drug law enforcement. This shift – from bloody to bloodless drug war – reflects the current administration’s potential emphasis on minimizing violence while still vigorously pursuing drug-related crimes,” Barbers said. 

The quad-comm is holding an inquiry in aid of legislation on the Duterte drug war, which allegedly snuffed out over 30,000 lives in total.