Marcos to issue executive order formalizing anti‑drug stance this year

MANILA, Philippines – An executive order formalizing the Marcos administration’s anti-drug strategy will be issued later this year as the government moves to expand its approach to curbing narcotics use and trade, Marikina Rep. Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro said Wednesday.

Teodoro said the Presidential Management Staff is reviewing the 2018 Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy (PADS), with an updated version expected by December.

“We are waiting for the enhanced PADS based on the executive order because the times and issues are changing,” Teodoro, a vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers as he sponsored the Dangerous Drugs Board’s proposed P418 million budget for next year.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: ICC to hold 3rd status conference on Duterte case

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

The government has broadened its anti-drug campaign to include “health, social and developmental” services as part of efforts to implement a more holistic approach to curb drug abuse, he said.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has shifted his government’s anti-drug strategy to what he touts as a “bloodless” campaign focused on rehabilitation over enforcement. That approach differs sharply from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown that left thousands of suspected users and dealers dead.

Duterte is facing a case before the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity linked to killings during his administration’s anti-drug campaign. The ICC prosecutor alleges that Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder allegedly committed in the Philippines between Nov. 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019.

Duterte in October 2018 issued Executive Order No. 66 to confront what his government called a “serious national concern” over illegal drugs, saying in his directive that it was meant “to demonstrate the country’s resolve in confronting the issue on illegal drugs.”

“When the executive order was first issued, there were only two focus: the first one is the so-called supply reduction, so more on the enforcement; and drug demand reduction, so preventive,” said Teodoro. /das