GRACE POE AND RISA HONTIVEROS DISAGREE WITH PRESIDENT DUTERTE'S DECISION TO RETURN THE CONTROL OF DRUG WAR TO THE PNP!

Senators Grace Poe and Risa Hontiveros on Friday expressed their disagreement with President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to return the control of the drug war to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

In a statement, Poe said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was still the “ideal” government agency to lead the administration’s war on drugs, saying it had the legal mandate to carry out anti-drug operations.

Poe reminded the administration that the PNP had been involved in “too many controversial operations.”

“We must not forget that the PNP has been involved in too many controversial operations, thus casting doubt on the organization's ability to uphold the rule of law and respect basic rights,” Poe said.

“With PDEA remaining on top of the operations and with PNP as main support, the government will be able to help rectify the manner or conduct of such operations,” she added.

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Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, a former chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), agreed with Poe. He said the PDEA would be “more effective” in supervising the war on drugs.

Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros, for her part, said Duterte might not be satisfied with PDEA’s less bloody approach on the problem of illegal drugs.

“PDEA's alternative approach is already shaming the President's abusive and inefficient Oplan Tokhang and teaching the public that there is a better way to address the country's drug problem,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

She said the PDEA should continue leading the drug war with the PNP and other law enforcement agencies taking a secondary role.

Hontiveros called Duterte’s decision “ill-advised” and a “return to the horrors” of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

“It opens up the dangerous possibility of another Kian Delos Santos, of hundreds if not thousands more dead, and the further loss of trust of the public in our police force,” Hontiveros said referring to the teenager fatally shot by the police last August.

Poe and Hontiveros said the government should see the drug problem as a health issue that required alternative approaches.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senator Gringo Honasan said returning the drug war to the PNP was the prerogative of President Duterte.

On Wednesday, Duterte said he would eventually return his administration’s war on drugs to the PNP. It was only last month when he issued a memorandum tasking PDEA to be the sole agency in charge of drug operations.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque explained that Duterte wants to avoid the drug problem from worsening.

“He does not want the problem to worsen…I don’t know if a formal direcive has been issued. Effectively, he has manifested already a decision to return it to the PNP,” he said.