Concerned agencies like the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) cannot blindfold Vice President Leni Robredo in her new role as anti-drug czar and push her to the precipice by denying her the accurate information on illegal drugs.

Policy reorientation on the anti-narcotics campaign must be data and evidence-based.

Robredo’s request for a copy of the list of high value targets and drug addicts is essential and not beyond comprehension.

These data, including the authentic list of casualties in the brutal war on drugs, are indispensable in pursuing non-violent and innovative strategies in the anti-illegal drugs campaign.

What makes the narco list inordinately sacrosanct that it should be held close to the chest of PDEA’s Director General Aaron Aquino and Robredo’s co-chair in the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD)?

Without these empirical data, the Vice President will be galloping blindly on a redirected anti-drugs drive.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN