VOLUME 15 (Supplement)

A critique on the “war on drugs” policy in the Philippines

The “war on drugs” policy of the Philippine government caught worldwide attention with the assumption to office of President Duterte in2016. This was brought about by the unprecedented and controversial campaign dubbed as Operation Double Barrel (Operation Tokhang and Operation High Value Target) that led millions of illegal drug users to surrender and that also resulted to alleged extra-judicial killings of mostly users and street-level pushers. Taking cue from the controversial drug campaign, a roundtable discussion with 54 experts from the academe, national and local government, non-government organizations, institutes of health, and medical societies, was organized by a policy and research group in the University of the Philippines Manila to review and critic the implementation of the existing drug law of the Philippines in the light of the current drug situation and to collectively draw out policy statements as an output. The policy statement is presented in this article.