— Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Friday said he wants MANILA, PhilippinesJustice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Friday said he wants newly appointed Dangerous Drugs Board chief Dionisio Santiago to overtake chairmanship of the Bureau of Corrections. Aguirre's statement came after BuCor chief Benjamin Delos Santos handed his resignation to the justice secretary over the resurgence of the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison despite its strict security. Santiago replaced Benjamin Reyes as DDB head after the latter was dismissed by Duterte in May for “contradicting” the administration's drug user data. Santiago is the source of Duterte's claim that there were three million drug users in the Philippines five years ago. However, Reyes reported that there were only 1.8 million drug users in the country based on the DDB’s 2015 Nationwide Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug Abuse released in September last year.

Source: Philippine Star July 14, 2017 04:18 UTC