Senator Richard Gordon criticized on Wednesday the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for destroying only a small portion of the confiscated billion pesos worth of illegal drugs this year.
“Kahit anong tingin ko Jess, ang baba, pagbali-baligtarin ko ito, ang baba ng sinusunog niyo,” Gordon told PDEA Deputy Director for General Administration Jesus Fajardo.
(However you look at it, Jess, it’s too low, what you’re destroying is too low.)
“Your honor, it’s about the destruction ceremony. Your honor, hindi po lahat ng natu-turnover sa PDEA. ‘Yung iba ay nasa PNP (Philippine National Police), NBI (National Bureau of Investigation),” Fajardo argued.
(Your honor, it’s about the destruction ceremony. Your honor, not all were turned over to PDEA. Some are with PNP, NBI.)
But Gordon asserted that under the law, PDEA is mandated to recover all seized illegal drugs.
“No, ang law, kayo dapat ang kumuha niyan, kayo ang vacuum cleaner eh. At dapat ‘pag nagreport kayo, ‘eto binigay sa ‘min ng PNP, ‘eto binigay sa ‘min ng NBI, ‘eto nakuha ng PDEA para makita natin ang performance ng agencies against drugs. We have a war against drugs!” Gordon said.
“For which we are being battered, by do-gooders throughout the world, na tayo ay may human rights abuses, rightly or wrongly,” he added.
The PDEA told a Senate panel that the government had only incinerated P134 million worth of illegal drugs for 2017.
Gordon feared that the confiscated illegal drugs that were not disposed would be recycled and returned to the drug market.
The senator vowed that he would open a separate inquiry on the government’s disposal of illegal drugs. /kga