Philippines both winning and losing the drug war

I found this article from the Philippine Star interesting, even though the butchering of the English language makes it sometimes a little confusing.
Basically it says that, despite the fact that the United States called the Philippines “a drug trafficker’s paradise,” saying the illegal drug trade in the country has evolved into a billion-dollar industry, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency ( PDEA ) says the government is winning the war on drugs.
How do you explain this discrepancy? The chief claims that it’s part of the strategy:

“The report, made annually by the US State Department, is used by their decision makers in allocating funds for the anti-drug campaign for other countries,” Avenido said.
He said if the US tags a country as drug free, they will no longer give support to that particularly country, he explained.

So it seems the trick for other countries is, in order to get the most money from our taxpayers, you need to be seen to be cracking down very hard, but not really accomplishing anything. Fortunately for them, that strategy is a perfect fit with the drug war.