By Chito Chavez and Aaron Recuenco

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Director General Aaron Aquino on Tuesday hit back at Vice President Leni Robredo for using “wild assumptions” of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and making it appear as hard facts in branding the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign as a “dismal failure”.

Likewise, Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP officer-in-charge, said Robredo had no factual basis in declaring that only one percent of the circulating drugs was being confiscated every year since the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs was launched in July 2016.

“With all due respect, I beg to disagree with the public relations bombshell of VP Robredo of the national anti-drug campaign as a massive failure,” said Gamboa in a press briefing at Camp Crame.

“Whether her numbers are merely an estimate or the exact value, in any case, the figure derived is totally wrong,” he added.

Robredo served briefly as Aquino’s co-chairman in the Inter-Agency Committee on illegal Drugs (ICAD).

Robredo had described the government’s anti-narcotics drive as a “massive failure,” citing police data that the government seized a mere one percent of the 156,000 kilos of shabu that were distributed and used in the country since 2016.

“Her interpretation of figures that will derive the one percent is wrong. You cannot compare factual figures from assumptions or estimated figures. Where is the accuracy there?” Aquino said.

Stressing Robredo’s report as both saddening and amusing, Aquino stressed the PNP data she cited that more than 150,000 kilograms of illegal drugs are flooding the country on a yearly basis is “not the official figure of the PNP’s drug enforcement unit” reiterating that it was merely a “wild assumption”.

Aquino expressed deep frustration that the efforts of the PDEA agents and other anti-narcotics enforcers who risked their lives are being discredited and negated with the erroneous report on the illegal drug situation in the country.

He said that anti-narcotics authorities have seized P45 billion worth of drugs since 2016 and arrested some 225,000 suspects, including around 8,000 “high-value targets”.

Despite what was supposed to be the Vice-President’s wrong description of the government’s illegal drug accomplishments, Aquino noted that local anti-drug officers will continue to coordinate with their foreign counterparts to hunt some 12,000 remaining “high-value targets”.

He explained further that “estimates or wild assumptions are not official figures and therefore are not factual” insisting that Robredo’s report “is much like comparing apples and oranges”.

Stressing his point more intensely, Aquino maintained the ICAD has no official figure on the actual number of illegal drugs circulating in the country.

This is so according to Aquino since obtaining such accurate data is extremely difficult which Robredo, during her time at the ICAD was fully aware of.

In taking the cudgels for the PDEA agents and other anti-narcotics personnel on the ground, Aquino emphasized that it is very inappropriate for the Vice-President to compare an estimated number from an official and factual figure to make it appear that the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign is a failure.

READ MORE: PNP leadership refutes Robredo’s claim that gov’t drug war was ‘a massive failure’

Meanwhile, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said on Tuesday that the Duterte administration’s fight against illegal drugs would continue to the last hour of its six-year term that ends on June 30, 2022.

Go said talk about routing the pernicious illegal drugs problem is not enough “but you have to scare them, you must be ready to kill (the drug lords] for the good of the affected innocent Filipinos.”

The former special assistant to President Duterte made this observation after Robredo presented her recommendations and concluded that President Duterte’s bloody anti-illegal drugs campaign is a “dismal failure.”

“We respect her recommendations. But again, let me reiterate, hindi po madadaan sa salita lamang ang laban sa iligal na droga,” Go stressed.

“As long as the addicts are there, the drug lords are there, the greed for money is there, we cannot easily wipe out the supply of ‘shabu’ (crystal meth) in the country. This is the reason the government campaign has to continue to save the innocent victims of illegal drugs. We will continue to intensify the campaign [against illegal drugs),” he said.

READ MORE: Action, not words needed to lick illegal drugs problem – Go

Despite the criticisms, the camp of Robredo said the Vice President’s intention was just to reveal the truth.

“The VP explicitly stated that her purpose was not to criticize or attack anyone, but to reveal the truth about the drug war. The numbers are there. The report is clearly based on empirical evidence,” vice presidential spokesman Barry Gutierrez said.

“If they disagree with it, they should prove their point through evidence as well. Otherwise, it is obvious who is really politicizing the issue,” Gutierrez, who is also Robredo’s legal adviser, added. (With reports from Mario B. Casayuran and Raymund F. Antonio)