CAMP TECSON, San Miguel, Bulacan—A case involving the smuggling of P4 billion worth of "shabu" (methamphetamine hydrochloride) into the Subic Bay Freeport in May is far from closed, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said here on Tuesday.

Retired Gen. Dionisio Santiago said the case has yet to see closure as the main suspect, Filipino-Chinese Anthony "Anton" Ang, continued to elude arrest six months after he failed to claim back the contraband he had passed off as computer parts.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority police and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group discovered the haul in four batches totaling more than 700 kilograms. The biggest load was found at the Anglo-Asia warehouse that Ang rented at the freeport.

"We haven't gotten Anton Ang. How can you close the case when you have not arrested the main suspect? There's no case closed. We only discovered the operations. This may take years and the criminal case may take long," Santiago said.

He also called as false the reports that Ang had been killed to silence him. "He's still alive. He's in China," Santiago said, citing intelligence reports.

Ang, he said, escaped because the order to hold his departure came late.

"He will be mistaken if he thinks the PDEA has rested the case. Hindi kami basta tumitigil. Continuing effort ito [We don't easily stop. This is a continuing effort]. If he can stay forever in China, well and good," Santiago said.

On the order of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, PDEA burned the shabu in June in a facility in Cavite.

Ang snubbed the efforts of Santiago to have him seek protection from PDEA.

SBMA officials said Ang used to operate a restaurant specializing in Chinese cuisine, sold that in 2004 and turned to the importation of Chinese liquor and cigarette. He and his family had resided in a village in nearby Olongapo City for more than a decade and had done charity work before the controversy broke out.

Authorities had not been able to locate the Vietnamese vessel that brought the shabu cargo into the freeport.

Santiago said reports received by PDEA showed that Ang is backed by influential personalities. He did not name them.

He described the drug menace in the country as "terrible."

"It's very difficult to eliminate this. [The trade of illegal drugs] is an international thing. Kaya terrible 'yan meron pa ring sinasandalan ang mga ito. [The problem] is terrible because the drug syndicates have protectors. Some who are supposed to be concerned and to be implementing the law are the ones who don't help out," he said, without giving other details.

The supply of shabu in the country has turned scarce on the heels of intensified campaign against illegal drugs, pushing retail street prices at P10,000 per gram, he said.

Santiago has proposed to apply the police's strike-three policy at the level of barangay captains. That means that in situations when raids on villages turns up positive three times for illegal drugs, the village chief would be axed.

Congress, he said, has agreed to increase PDEA's budget by P40 million from last year's P600 million mostly for personnel services.

PDEA, however, only managed to fill up 800 of 1,850 slots this year for intelligence operatives and drug enforcement officers due to stringent selection process. The savings, he said, would be returned to the treasury.

"We're very careful in recruitment due to the sensitive nature of our job," Santiago said, adding that more PDEA agents would be deployed to the regions in 2009.