MANILA — Authorities are expected to “go heavy” against groups and personalities involved in supplying narcotics to the country as the government shifts its drug war strategy, the interior department said Tuesday. 

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla made the announcement following Monday’s meeting in Malacanang between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the leadership of the interior and justice departments, the national police, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Malacanang.

“For the longest time, we have been concentrating on the consumption side, arresting them on street levels, arresting them on crimes they committed on a buy bust. This time we are going heavy on the supply side going against the big guns: the big suppliers, the main men involved in the importation of drugs,” Remulla said in a Palace briefing.

He noted that while ongoing drug operations yielded record seizures of illegal drugs, there was a need to focus on addressing the entry of narcotics in the country.

“Kasi pataas nang pataas ang seizures on the ground, pero puro maliliit, puro 1 kilogram, 2 kilograms, so obviously there’s something wrong kung puro ganon lang ang nahuhuli. So the drug trade is more sophisticated now, they use more sophisticated methods in distribution. They use cryptocurrency to hide their proceeds, so it’s a different war altogether,” the official said.

“When you look at the amount of seizures na ginagawa ngayon it's on a record number as compared to before and that is because of a more comprehensive plan by the government. But there are deficiencies on the supply side so that is where the plan is now, how to go after the supply side.”

Remulla said the new strategy would involve stronger coordination with anti-drug agencies from other countries to be able to intercept drugs being brought into the Philippines.

“The number one control point that has to be addressed is the Manila International Container Point Subic and PHIVIDEC in Cagayan. They seem to be the main transit point in drugs now. You have to remember that there are 10,000 containers a day which pass through the port and opening them up one [by one] will paralyze the entire economy of the country,” he said.

“So ang ginagawa nila ay mas magiging close ang collaboration nila with the foreign anti-drug authorities like the US DEA para on the supply side palang, papasok palang dito, may interdiction na kaagad.”

BILIBID DRUG TRADE 

Remulla also revealed plans to transfer hundreds of drug personalities detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa to a maximum security facility, to address what he said was an ongoing drug trade inside the jail facility. 

“They are taking proactive steps para ialis na high value detainees sa loob ng Muntinlupa and setting up a maximum detention facility somewhere in the Philippines. I think the operations will start pretty soon and we will see a stark difference in the war against drugs in the Philippines,” he said.

According to Remulla, there are about 200 high value drug detainees in Muntinlupa, which according to intercepted communications and intelligence briefings, remained active in the narcotics trade.

“The other high value targets, a lot of them are based abroad so it’s the supply side and how to intercept them and yung interdiction nila paloob ng Pilipinas ang ina-eye nila,” Remulla said.

He refused to reveal information about the new facility which he said was undergoing construction. 

The Marcos Jr. administration has been distancing itself from the bloody war on drugs of the previous Duterte presidency, saying it will focus in keeping illegal drugs away from the country's borders and off its streets.

Philippines drug war: What changed under President Marcos?

"Our bloodless war on dangerous drugs adheres and will continue to adhere to the established... effective anti-illegal drugs strategy. Extermination was never one of them," the President said in his State of the Nation Address in July.

Duterte, whose policies — including the violent drug war, which has been marred by allegations of extrajudicial killings and police abuse — are the subject of hearings at the House and Senate — has stood by the program, with his allies saying a violent approach was necessary.

'Ako ang makulong': Duterte says he takes 'full responsibility' for bloody drug war

He claimed at a Senate hearing last month that crime has returned because of the end of the drug war.

The PNP has disputed this claim, saying there was a 61.87-percent decrease in index crimes recorded in from July 2022 to July 2024 against a comparable period between 2016 and 2018. — with Pia Gutierrez, ABS-CBN News