War on drugs exceeds gains of first 6 months of 2016 – PDEA

PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs members and its chief Senior Supt. Albert Ferro, and a Special Action Force operative do the signature pose of President Duterte after recovering P900-million worth of illegal drugs in Claveria, Cagayan province. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said on Tuesday that its accomplishments in the first two months of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration had already exceeded those in the first six months of this year.

Briefing members of the House committee on dangerous drugs, PDEA Director General Isidro Lapeña said the anti-drugs agency and the Philippine National Police seized P5.44 billion worth of dangerous drugs from June 30 to Aug. 25. The confiscated drugs included shabu, marijuana, and ecstasy.

On the other hand, the PDEA and the PNP seized only P3.85 billion worth of illegal drugs from January to June 29, Lapeña added.

Lapeña said a total of 673,978 drug personalities — 629,139 users and 44,839 pushers — surrendered from July 1 to Aug. 22. He expressed confidence that, in the long run, this number would make a dent in the illegal drugs trade.

“Due to the number of drug surenderees, we particularly deducted a significant amount of drugs from the streets. The surrender of 673,978 drug personalities means a reduction of 1,040 kilos of shabu from the market translated to P5.2 billion loss in income,” Lapeña said.

Lapeña noted the following achievements of the PDEA during the Duterte administration: the raid on the house of alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and the arrest of former Maguing mayor Johaira Abinal Macabuat and her husband Suharto, an Army major.

The raid on Espinosa’s house yielded 11 kilos of shabu worth P88 million. Macabuat is the alleged “mayora” or “shabu queen” of Mindanao.

READ: Narcs arrest ex-mayor tagged as Mindanao drug queen | PNP: Seizure of P88M shabu shows Leyte town mayor knew of son’s drug trade

He also cited operations that neutralized alleged Chinese drug lord Mico Tan, whose shabu laboratory in Valenzuela was raided in July.

READ: ‘Big-time Chinese drug lord’ shot dead by police in Valenzuela City

Lapeña said the PDEA was motivated by President Duterte’s statement that the war on drugs would be “relentless” and “sustained.”

The PDEA chief said the agency seized 1,443.37 kilos of shabu from Jan. 1 to Aug. 25 this year, of which almost half, or 563.86 kilos, were seized during the first two months of the Duterte administration.

For the whole of 2015, the PDEA and the police seized 595.81 kilos of shabu, Lapeña said. The figure is less than half (41.28 percent) of the drugs confiscated during the first eight months of 2016.

Meanwhile, the PDEA has dismantled six shabu laboratories so far this year, compared to just two laboratories in 2015. The agency has dismantled 102 shabu laboratories since 1997.

Lapeña said the price of shabu in the Philippines was at the mid-range of $120, or P5,571.60 (P46.43 to $1), per gram probably because of its proximity to manufacturers in China.

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 25, the PDEA seized 9,767 pieces of ecstasy, which is 70.29 percent higher than the 2,902 pieces seized in 2015, Lapeña said.

As to its operations in arresting personalities involved in the drug trade, Lapeña said 325 government employees, 229 elected officials, and 188 law enforcers were arrested for drug-related activities so far since 2011.

The highest elected official arrested was a board member, Lapeña said.

Committee chair Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers lauded the accomplishments of the PDEA.

“We congratulate the PDEA and the National Bureau of Investigation for a job well done. The initial steps in this war (are)  manifesting a lot of victories,” Barbers said.

He said the accomplishments were made despite the increasing number of vigilante killings of drug suspects at the height of Duterte’s war on drugs.

“Maraming victories, maraming namamatay, with or without extrajudicial killings. But we’re not in the body counting. Ang sa atin lang, it seems that this war that we’re waging already is in the first initial stage of victory,” Barbers said./rga