P807.7-M worth of illegal drugs destroyed in Cavite

MANILA, Philippines – Anti-narcotics agents destroyed P807.7 million-worth of illegal drugs in Cavite, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said Thursday.

In a statement, PDEA Director General Undersecretary Jose Gutierrez Jr. said 22 kilograms of powdered crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu”, 206 liters of liquid shabu, 95 liters of liquid ephedrine, 186 kilograms of dried marijuana leaves, and other drugs like cocaine, heroin and valium were destroyed by the process of thermal decomposition at the Integrated Waste Management Incorporated (IWMI) in Barangay (village) Aguado, Trece Martirez City, Cavite.

“We destroyed these dangerous drugs today so that they will no longer be used by drug syndicates and their cohorts to destroy more lives. To unscrupulous drug groups, today’s destruction [ceremony] represents more than P800 million loss. We have kept our side of our social contract to keep the supply of illegal drugs inaccessible to consumers,” Gutierrez said.

PDEA said the drugs were ordered destroyed after the court that covers the cases in which these drugs were involved, said that the items are no longer needed as drug evidence. Expired medicines were also destroyed along with the dangerous drugs.

“Extremely high temperature burned the substances into ashes, making it practically impossible to reconstruct its original chemical composition. This is PDEA’s way of ensuring the public that confiscated drugs are destroyed and not recycled,” Gutierrez said, adding that the value of dangerous drugs destroyed Thursday exceeded the combined P591 million-worth of the drug evidence destroyed in 2011.