A total of 77 percent of illegal drug cases in the past six years remain pending in courts, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said on Thursday.

Abalos said a total of 291,393 illegal drug cases were filed from 2016 to July 15, 2022.

"Of the 291,393, 62,000 or 21 percent ( of persons accused) have been convicted, 5,753 have been dismissed and we still have a pending case of 223,579 or about 77 percent are still pending," he said.

"It should be monitored," he added.

Abalos noted that most cases filed are related to illegal drug pushing which is about 61 percent, possession of illegal drugs are 23 percent and illegal drug use six percent.

"Let's go to the law itself. Let's scrutinize this aside from what we said earlier, what is important is the investigators. Let's examine the technicality of the law that we should take a look at," he said.

Abalos said the DILG will conduct mentorship and reassessment of the qualification of police investigators as he noted that only 123 out of the 22,774 are law graduates.

"There will be mentorship and reassessment of what's happening right now on the ground. So there will be retraining, whatever they have we will supplement it. We should look carefully at who is qualified or not. There would there be incentives if you are an investigator," he said.

"There should be a reassessment of those who were chosen. What are the qualifications, what seminars should be provided and the DOJ could really come in and assist us and help us," he added. Robina Asido/DMS