The fight against illegal drugs just got a boost from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) which has committed to train more narcotics-sniffing dogs for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Vice Commandant for Operations Rear Adm. Luis Tuason Jr., the PCG officer in charge, said he met recently with new PDEA chief Arturo Cacdac Jr. and both agreed the PCG K-9 unit would train and turn over around 20 dogs to the antidrugs agency by next year.
The six-month training will begin in January and the dogs would be turned over to PDEA in July.
The PCG K-9 unit has its own breeding program and has for several years been raising dogs skilled in detecting narcotics and explosives.
“In the case of PDEA, the dogs would exclusively be for narcotics,” Tuason said.
The PCG officer said the training was in line with President Aquino’s directive to government agencies to help PDEA and assist the government in its efforts to address the illegal drug problem in the country.
“Once PDEA has increased the number of its narcotics-trained dogs, it would no longer need to borrow dogs from other agencies whenever it has an operation,” Tuason said.
He added this was the first time the PCG would be training dogs and their handlers for another government agency.