Former senator Tito Sotto III Friday vowed to pursue his campaign against illegal drugs abuse if he makes it to the Senate in the May 10 elections.

Sotto III, who authored Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, said during an informal interview that the illegal drugs business in the country has amounted to a regular intake of about P800 million a month by drug lords and pushers. “The amount is only for the use of shabu,” the former senator, who is eyeing for a return to the Senate, said.

Sotto served last year as the chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board. The position is a six-year term as provided by law, but he opted to run again for the Senate so that he could pursue more effectively his campaign against illegal drugs use. He is the lone senatorial bet of the Nationalist Peoples’ Coalition.

Sotto added that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the implementing arm of the DDB, has been so effective in making arrests of suspected drug pushers. He said that there are about 107,800 arrests already made, but about 80,000 are yet unresolved. Of the 24 percent resolved, 50 percent were dismissed.

He decried that lawyers of the accused are good in delaying tactics during court proceedings which then open for the disappearance of witnesses and the loss of documentary evidence. “I will immediately file a bill providing for the creation of Special Drugs Courts,” Sotto stressed. “If I can get back to the Senate.”