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BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLOD City – The Duterte administration had been “effective” in the campaign against drug trafficking in the President’s first 100 days in office, according to the Police Regional Office 18 (PRO-18).
Specifically in Negros Island Region, the police have accomplished more under the intensified antidrug drive Oplan Double Barrel, said Chief Inspector Dianne Grace Catedral, PRO-18 public information officer.
“Naging effective ang kapulisan ngayon,” she said.
Catedral attributed this to the President’s “will” to eradicate illegal drugs in the country and the public’s cooperation.
“A lot of concerned citizens nakiki-isa sa kapulisan when it comes to fighting drugs and other crimes,” she stressed.
Duterte promised to rid the Philippines of drugs and crimes within three to six months.
On July 1, the Philippine National Police launched Oplan Double Barrel.
It has two stages: the knock-and-appeal, where police officers visit identified drug personalities and encourage them to surrender or stop engaging in the drug trade, and the more aggressive search and buy-bust operations.
More than 25,000 suspected drug users and/or pushers in Negros Island Region surrendered to the police in the first two months of the operation plan.
“Naka-comply (tayo) sa Oplan (Double Barrel). Marami ang surrenderees,” said Catedral.
Proactive operations also allowed the police to neutralize a “huge number” of high-value and low-value targets, she said.
Seventy-six percent of voting-age Filipinos were “satisfied” with Duterte, according to the first Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey to measure public satisfaction of the presidential performance.
Eleven percent of the respondents were “dissatisfied,” while 13 percent were “undecided,” showed the survey conducted on Sept. 24 to 27 and whose results were released through partner BusinessWorld.
According to SWS, Duterte’s net satisfaction rating in the first quarter of his term was 64 percent, or “very good.”
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental vice governor Eugenio Jose Lacson rated Duterte “6.”
It was the same rating the President gave himself, Lacson claimed.
Duterte has been so relentless in his antidrug campaign “this is all we hear from his speeches,” said the vice governor.
Advocates, concerned citizens, and foreign governments and bodies have called out Duterte for the human rights violations bugging the campaign, but Lacson said the President was too “headstrong.”
Duterte’s unorthodox and contentious approach in fighting drug trafficking has elicited criticisms from the United Nations, European Union, United States President Barack Obama, among others.
The former mayor of Davao City — where he exercised the same uncompromising stand — shot back at critics, telling Obama to “go to hell” and daring the UN and the EU to pull out their aid to the Philippines.
While Lacson believes the Duterte administration is “winning this war (on drugs),” it should “give more emphasis on saving lives rather than taking them away.”
As of the first week of October, more than 3,500 drug suspects were killed since the launch of Oplan Double Barrel: over 1,500 in “legitimate” police operations and some 2,200 in the hands of vigilantes, Philippine National Police data showed.
Duterte also succeeded in securing temporary peace with the communist rebels, but the traffic in Metro Manila remains a concern, said Lacson.
The vice governor also said he has “yet to see economic indicators on whether our country has sustained its growth.”
Senior Provincial Board member Salvador Escalante rated the President “9.”
“Except for his mouth, so far, so good,” Escalante said.
Duterte marked his 100th day in office on Oct. 8./PN
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