Amendments proposed to Dangerous Drugs Act

To prevent the possible recycling of P22 billion worth of illegal drugs still stored in the warehouse of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), amendments to the implementing rules of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 were proposed on Thursday during the budget hearing for PDEA and the Dangerous Drugs Board.

“We agreed to have the budget hearing converted into a session to improve coordination between the judiciary and PDEA and see how the law can be improved so the purpose of the law can be implemented,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson of the Senate subcommittee on finance noted that stored illegal drugs cannot be destroyed without a court order.

During the session, the PDEA identified three instances that delay the destruction of dangerous drugs: archived cases or cases where the accused are at large; the difficulty faced by courts in complying with the required ocular inspection within 72 hours of the seizure of the contraband, and the requirement for PDEA to destroy the narcotics within 24 hours after the court’s ocular inspection.