A bill seeking a human rights- and health-based approach to eliminating the long-standing drug menace has been filed in the House of Representatives in the thick of the ongoing investigation of the bloody anti-drug campaign of the Duterte administration.

Newest member of the House Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña said the proposal will “prevent the killing of more innocent” individuals like Kian de los Santos, a 17-year-old senior high school student killed by police at the height of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war in 2017. 

The proposed law prohibits the use of “tokhang,”—a term used when the police knock on the door of a suspected drug trafficker to persuade them to surrender—drug watch lists, torture, unlawful police interference, and other cruel methods used in the government’s anti-drug efforts. 

“Instead of violence and bullets, our solution is to provide competent treatment and direct care to drug users,” Cendaña said. 

The measure, if passed into law, will mandate the Department of Health in coordination with local government units to establish community-based health and social support programs designed for the assessed needs of individuals who suffer from drug problems.

The bill also prohibits police officers or any law enforcers to, arrest, detain, list, or subject to surveillance persons who use or possess drugs but to surrender them to a community-based health and social support program.

Drug testing to determine use, relapse, and compliance with a drug dependence treatment under all circumstances and for whatever purpose, will also be forbidden. 

Moreover, the bill also aims to impose no criminal, civil, and administrative liability on any person who uses drugs and continues to use any controlled substances after treatment or incarceration. 

Dangerous Drugs Board Undersecretary Earl Saavedra said it's now high time to amend the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (RA 9165) or introduce a new bill governing the country's anti-drug campaign, citing "gaps" and "loopholes" in the current law.

House Bill 1104 or the “Kian Bill” filed on Monday has a counterpart measure in the Senate filed by Senator Risa Hontivesros, also from the Akbayan coalition.

At the Philippine Drug Policy and Law Reform Summit in July, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said the problem with addressing drug problems must not always necessitate threat and intimidation. 

He emphasized the need to shift the brutal response into a more human rights-based and public health approach.

National Police Commission vice chair and executive officer Alberto Bernando also called for the creation of policies that are “not only effective but also fair, just, and humane.”

Representatives from the United Nations have also backed the Philippines' efforts to shift the punitive drug response to a more public health and human rights-based response.

Duterte's war on drugs killed roughly 7,000 people, based on the government's data.

Local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the death toll exceeded 30,000, affecting predominantly low-income families and communities.