DANGEROUS DRUGS ACT | Philippines eyes review of anti-drug law

DANGEROUS DRUGS ACT | Philippines eyes review of anti-drug law – justice official

December 7, 2023 , 08:39 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(December 7, 2023) – The Philippine government plans to review the country’s anti-illegal drug legislation as part of its push to address the long-standing problem of overcrowding in prisons, a justice department official said on Thursday.

Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres said the Marcos government plans to hold a “drug summit” aimed at amending the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, citing a need to go after low-level drug offenders “in a different manner” while still sustaining the crackdown on big-time drug dealers and suppliers.

“Sometimes people are charged with non-bailable offenses even with a miniscule amount – so we have to review threshold amounts and how to afford them bail during the course of the trial so that we don’t congest our jails,” Andres said.

Various government offices from the executive, judicial, and legislative branches convened in a “National Jail Decongestion Summit” to discuss the congestion of jail facilities in the country.

A Commission on Audit (COA) report showed nearly 68% of jail facilities across the country are congested as of 2022, with the most congested of the facilities showing an occupancy to capacity ratio of as high as 2,739%.

Andres said around 70,000 persons were arrested for various drug-related cases over the past two years.

In past pronouncements, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has promised to shift the government’s anti-drug policy towards rehabilitating people who use narcotics and reeducating the youth to discourage drug use.

This is in contrast to the drug war policy of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, whose iron-fisted rule drew international scrutiny due to a sharp rise in drug-related killings during his presidency.

At least 6,000 suspected drug offenders were killed in anti-drug operations during the Duterte administration, based on police data. But human rights groups peg the death toll from his drug war policy at as high as 30,000, including vigilante killings.

But human rights groups have noted that the killings have continued well into the Marcos Jr. administration. Dahas, a project of the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center (UP TWSC), tallied at least 342 drug-related killings during Marcos’ first year as president.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR) has urged the Philippine government to revise its drug laws in line with international human rights policies, including considering decriminalizing drug possession for personal use and investing in treatment and harm reduction to reduce the dangers of drug misuse.

(MM | With reports from Marlene Alcaide, News5)

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