PDEA-CAR hopes next admin to continue PRRD’s anti-drugs drive

June 26, 2022 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the Cordillera on Monday hoped that the next administration will keep among its top priorities the anti-drug program of outgoing President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
“It is our mandate to rid the country of illegal drugs even after the term of President Duterte. We are hopeful that the next administration will continue to have the illegal drugs eradication program as among the priorities so that the momentum will continue,” PDEA-Cordillera regional director Gil Ceasario Castro said on Monday.
Castro vowed to sustain the momentum gained in the present administration that has led to the prevention of billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs from being circulated in the communities.
“More importantly, the operations prevented the circulation and distribution of illegal drugs that surely led to crimes not committed by persons who are ‘high’ on drugs,” he also said.
Based on an earlier report, the PDEA has so far seized and destroyed a total of PHP10.291 billion worth of assorted illegal drugs — shabu, marijuana in different forms and derivatives, ecstasy, cocaine, and opium poppy seeds, including regulated drugs like midazolam, fentanyl, and CPECs – since the start of the administration of President Duterte in 2016.
Castro said some of the destroyed marijuana was discovered during eradication operations on-site in the hinterlands, leaving only a few
samples as evidence and for the ceremonial drug destruction activities.
The other drugs, which were chemically produced, including the marijuana derivatives, were destroyed during destruction activities at
the Holcim Cement factory in Bacnotan, La Union.
(PNA)