MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has on Tuesday, 12 November 2019, showed approval on the recent meeting of Vice President Leni Robredo with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Locsin said in his twitter post: “Thank you Leni. I’ve been trying without success to get us engaged with Vienna’s UNODC which is focused on fighting drug trafficking and dealing, not coddling them like Geneva, UNODC is currently headed by a Russian so we can trust it.”

The Russian Federation’s Yury Fedotov has been leading the UNODC since 2010.

Robredo, the newly appointed co-chair of the country’s Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), met on Monday morning with UNODC authorities.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the conference had anything to do with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) pending an investigation into the deaths blamed on the drug war.

Boyet Dy, Under-Secretary of the Vice President’s Office, said Monday the UNODC meeting discussed how to improve community-based rehabilitation centers.

Dy said, “We have learned that 90% of the problem is those slight or occasional drug users lang and which community-based rehabilitation programs would suffice. Ten percent lang iyong kailangan ng institutional intervention, meaning iyong kailangan na in-patient. These are government records.” 

“Kaya ang naging focus nung usapan with UNODC ay iyong karanasan ng ating mga karatig bansa sa Southeast Asia, iyong best practices, at iyong gaps na puedeng tugunan at mapabuti.” he also added.

Dy said Robredo and UNODC agreed to learn from Southeast Asia’s experiences and build on them. (Marian Andrei Sinamban/IAMIGO/CNS)