President Marcos said his approach to the country's drug menace has been successful as he reported that no lives were lost in the over 71,000 drug operations that yielded P44 billion worth of illegal drugs.

In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22, the President said killing drug suspects was not part of his administration's strategy for addressing the problem.

"Our bloodless war on dangerous drugs adheres— and will continue to adhere— to the established '8 Es' of an effective anti-illegal drugs strategy," Marcos said.

"Extermination was never one of them," he added.

According to Marcos, in the over 71,500 drug operations conducted since he assumed office, more than P44 billion worth of illegal drugs were seized and 97,000 drug personalities were arrested.

The President said that more than 6,000 of those arrested were high-value targets— 440 of them were government employees, of whom 42 were uniformed personnel and 77 were elected officials.

To further paralyze their operations, Marcos said dirty money and assets worth more than P500 million have been frozen and preserved.

With strong case build-up and efficient prosecution, the President noted that the drug conviction rate was at a high of 79 percent.

More importantly, the Chief Executive welcomed the report that the number of drug-affected barangays in the Philippines has been reduced by 32 percent.