Bato: No more ‘shabu’ labs in PH

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Illegal drugs such as “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) are no longer being manufactured in the country, Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said on Thursday, citing results of the latest monitoring.

“As of now, there are none. If there was [a laboratory], we could have operated on it but we have monitored none,” Dela Rosa told reporters after he received 24 vehicles turned over by Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda and Vice Gov. Dennis Pineda for the local police’s campaign to stop the trade and use of illegal drugs in the province.

“There remains much more to do in the campaign against illegal drugs. Ayaw paawat ang mga kalaban (The enemies persist with their trade),” the PNP chief said in his speech before local officials at the capitol grounds here.

The priority is to catch drug lords, he said. “They’re not too many. At times they are in the country, at times they are out. We can’t control their movement,” he added.

Without mentioning any country, he said many of the targets were overseas.

“We have discovered that the supply of illegal drugs in the Philippines is coming from overseas, and some are brought through normal [Bureau of] Customs procedures,” Dela Rosa said.

There are about four million users of illegal drugs, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). The drug market is estimated to be worth P120 billion.

In the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, 1,645 kilograms of shabu were seized from July 1, 2016, to April 20 this year, PDEA said.

Pineda said the 24 vehicles worth P21.336 million were expected to improve the mobility of the police.