Former Defense Secretary and senatorial candidate Gilbert (GIBO) Teodoro said introducing legislation and amendments to the law will help in strengthening the Philippine National Police (PNP) in their operations against illegal drugs.

In an interview with One News’ The Chiefs, Gibo Teodoro said a mandatory legislation may be introduced to avoid the conflicting jurisdiction between the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) that in some cases, lead to misencounters.

He added that it is also a high time to amend the Republic Act 8551 reforming the PNP to build the police force’s capacity in sharing the task with the Armed Forces of the Philippines of being the “guarantor of internal security”.

“It’s high time (that) we review Republic Act 8551 as amended, which makes the Armed Forces of the Philippines the primary guarantor of internal security,” the former Tarlac congressman said. “We have to have a sunset provision on that law already and build the capacity of the police for several tasks that the Armed Forces is doing at the present time.”

Gibo Teodoro, a lawyer and the 1989 Bar topnotcher, said that the war against drugs is extremely difficult because of the vast amount of money in the illegal activity. Thus, the government should focus on capacitating the PNP to have intelligence-based and evidence-based war on drugs operations.