1.5 million drug users in PNP records

October 30, 2019

Around 1.5 million drug users were accounted for since the start of the Duterte administration, according to a police official.

“We have accounted for 1.5 million drug users for the last three years,” Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac said in a TV interview on Wednesday.

Banac said that’s the official record for the last three years and not the seven to eight million that was previously mentioned by President Rodrigo Duterte.

He said their data was based on the drug users who “voluntarily surrendered and made themselves accounted for”.

Banac said the data of Duterte may come from his wide source of information.

“Well, we can always say that because the president has wide source of information so when he makes that estimate there could be a basis on that,” Banac said.

Banac added they were not consulted on the records the president have.

"We were not consulted because if we will show records, we can show that it will not reach that high," he said. 

The issue on the government’s war against illegal drugs came after Vice President Leni Robredo urged Duterte to stop his campaign since it is a failure. Ella Dionisio/DMS