PALO, Leyte, Philippines -- Six non-government organizations and several media outlets in Eastern Visayas have signed a "covenant" with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to help in the anti-drug campaign.

Members of the NGOs who signed the covenant are expected to act as "assets" or informants of the PDEA on activities related to the peddling of illegal drugs, particularly shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), considered to be the number one illegal substance used by drug users in the country.

Those in the media will be considered as partners in the anti-drug information dissemination campaign.

The NGOs that took part in the covenant signing held here Wednesday were the Kabalikat, Guardians, Bantay-Bayan, Access 5, Centennial Form Foundation, and the Narcotics Investigation Assistance Group. Representatives of different print and broadcast media outlets in the region belonging to the Leyte Private Media Organization also took part in the covenant-signing ceremony led by Undersecretary Dionisio Santiago, the director general of PDEA.

Santiago appealed to the rest of Eastern Visayans to be involved in anti-drug campaigns, saying the issue was not just the concern of law enforcement authorities.

"The drug problem in the country is now a national threat. That is why, we call on everybody to join in our campaign," Santiago said, following the covenant signing held at the PDEA regional located in this town, 11 kilometers from Tacloban City.

Santiago revealed that about six million Filipinos are illegal drug users.

Anti-drug operations yielded P6.8 billion worth of shabu in 2007 but Santiago said they would need to do more.

He cited the importance of Eastern Visayas in the fight against illegal drugs as the region has been a transit point in the delivery of shabu from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao and vice versa.

"Eastern Visayas is part of the trail," Santiago said.

PDEA regional director Gil Pabilona said in the first months of 2008 alone, authorities arrested 50 persons suspected to be engaged in the illegal drug trade and seized close to P2 million worth of drugs.