More than 160 self-confessed drug addicts surrender to authorities at the San Juan City Hall, Monday. City officials directed local barangay officials to ask drug users and pushers in their respective jurisdiction to voluntarily surrender and undergo drug rehabilitation. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – The Duterte administration is planning to put up rehabilitation centers for drug users in different regions across the country, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Monday, amid reports of hundreds of drug users and pushers voluntarily turning themselves in to authorities.
“I believe there are plans for setting up regional rehab centers,” Abella told reporters in a press briefing, adding that President Rodrigo Duterte “is out to exert firm pressure, a firm hand in order to deter the spread of drugs.”
Asked if Duterte was aware of the number of drugs syndicate members being killed in the past days, Abella said, “I’m sure he has his ears to the ground. He’s listening.”
“I don’t know if the term should be ‘wary’ or ‘alarmed,’ but I’m sure it’s ‘concern’ probably because, with that kind of activity, it shows the depth of the drug menace,” Abella added.
Duterte, who won a landslide victory in the May 9 elections on the back of his staunch anti-crime advocacy whose term as Davao City mayor was marked with reports of extrajudicial killings, has repeatedly vowed to kill drug pushers.
Allaying fears by human rights groups, Abella assured the public that all arrests in relation to the campaign against illegal drugs are in accordance with the law.
“The President is very well aware that everything should be done within the parameters of legality and so whatever needs to be done, will be done,” he said.
The Palace spokesperson said the same applies to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which, in a statement, said it accepts “Duterte’s offer of anti-drug cooperation.”
“In positive response, the CPP reiterates its standing order for the NPA (New People’s Army) to carry out operations to disarm and arrest the chieftains of the biggest drug syndicates, as well as other criminal syndicates involved in human rights violations and destruction of the environment,” the CPP said.
“The NPA is ready to give battle to those who will resist arrest with armed violence,” it added.
Abella said the campaign against drugs is not “free-for-all.”
“’Yung sinasabi nya, kinakilala niya na meron silang karapatan in order to be able to combat the war on drugs so kung anong man mangyari it will still go through a process,” Abella said. (MNS)