MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has lauded the reactivation of station-level antinarcotics units in Quezon City for making an immediate impact on the campaign against illegal drugs.
The seizure of P4-million worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride or “shabu” has been credited to the recent operations conducted by the antidrug units in the Quezon City Police District’s 12 stations.
“Look at them now. It did not take them too long to yield positive results,” PDEA Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr. said, citing recent arrests made by the QCPD under its director, Senior Supt. Joel Pagdilao.
According to Cacdac, the policemen underwent a stringent selection process to conduct anti-illegal drug operations in coordination with the PDEA.
On Nov. 5, two men were arrested while P4-million worth of shabu were seized in a buy-bust operation in Barangay (village) Salvacion, La Loma, Quezon City.
Two days before, a policeman and his cohort were caught red-handed delivering two sachets of shabu to a poseur-buyer outside a convenience store in Barangay North Fairview.
Under the reactivation scheme, the station anti-illegal drugs units will be responsible for eradicating street-level distribution in the barangays while the district anti-illegal drugs units will conduct operations across city or town boundaries.
On the other hand, the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) will go after national and international drug traffickers while regional AIDSOTF units will concentrate on illegal drug trafficking across provincial boundaries.
The setup was outlined in a letter of instruction issued by the Philippine National Police which provided for a multilevel approach in the conduct of antinarcotics operations nationwide in support of the PDEA.
Cacdac added that with the reactivation of the station-based antinarcotics teams, the QCPD now complements PDEA’s work against the street-level illegal drugs trade in all of Quezon City’s 142 barangays.–Julie M. Aurelio