PRESIDENTIAL candidate Grace Poe on Wednesday criticized the administration of President Benigno Aquino III for neglecting the drive against illegal drugs and crime.
“I’m sorry to say that this administration has really neglected our drive against drugs and crime,” Poe told bloggers and digital media reporters.
“The DILG has been a very weak institution [under] this administration.”
Poe made the statement even as she promised to create at least a million jobs a year to ease poverty in the country.
Senator Poe, the lone independent presidential candidate, made the promise to supporters in Butuan City and reiterated her position that the problem of peace and order could only be stopped if poverty was addressed.
Poe described the Department of Interior and Local Government, formerly led by Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II, as a “very weak” institution under the Aquino administration.
She said the Aquino administration did not have the likes of anti-drug advocates such as former Philippine National Police chief and senator Panfilo Lacson, former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, and even former President and incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
“If only there was a drive, and if only the people were seeing the government in really going after criminals and drug pushers, I think that would have been enough to pacify them,” Poe said.
“So now they’re going to the extreme—kill them all,” said Poe, this time alluding to another presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte has promised to put an end to criminality and illegal drugs within three to six months after assuming office if he gets elected.
But unlike Duterte, Poe said, there was no time line for her to solve the big problems if she became president.
“What is my plan against drugs and crime? I don’t want to mislead the public and say that three to six months will be enough because whether we like it or not, we have to work through our judicial system,” Poe said.
She said she would appoint an incorruptible and capable Philippine National Police chief, put up a war room in Malacañang to monitor drug and crime incidents in every village, and put up a cash reward system for the areas with zero crime incidents.
Calling drugs a threat to national security, Poe’s vice presidential bet, Senator Francis Escudero, said their Gobyernong May Puso will use the entire government force to combat narcotics, should they get elected on May 9.
“If we say the problem on drugs is a threat to national security, we are already doing the first important step to resolve this problem: the government’s admission that this is already a problem in the Philippines,” Escudero said.