“To ensure that the illegal drug trade in the [New] Bilibid [Prison] will be put to an end once and for all,” the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has set up an office inside the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
Inaugurated on Tuesday, the PDEA Liaison and Coordinating Office, which will have a staff of 12 along with two K9 units, will conduct regular inspections to stop the entry of illegal drugs and contraband.
It will also enable PDEA, which President Rodrigo Duterte recently tapped to replace the Philippine National Police as lead agency in the antidrug campaign, to maintain “24-hour visibility” in the NBP.
Both PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer in charge Chief Supt. Valfrie Tabian admitted that despite rigorous measures put in place in the NBP, the drug trade persists.
As a result, Tabian said, BuCor’s “best personnel [have] become confused amateurs.”
In July last year, elite police troopers from the Special Action Force were deployed to the NBP’s maximum security compound to replace BuCor personnel due to their failure to stop the drug trade.