ILOILO City – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 6 has a new regional director.
Edgar Apalla, 55, is expected to arrive today from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) to replace Alex Tablate.
Apalla, who headed the PDEA of CAR these past two years and from 2008 to 2011, was formerly with the Philippine National Police, according to Shey Tanaleon, spokesperson of PDEA-6.
He had also been PDEA director of Region 1 (2011 to 2012) and held a post, too, at the PDEA Academy from 2012 to 2013.
From 2015 to 2016 Apalla had a stint at PDEA’s office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“With the experiences of our new director, we can work together to arrest more drug traffickers. This is his first time to be assigned in the Visayas,” said Tanaleon.
There is a reshuffling among PDEA regional directors.
“Sir Tablate has been heading PDEA Region 6 for two years already,” said Tanaleon.
The tour of duty of a PDEA director in an assignment is two years maximum.
Tablate’s new post is as acting service director of PDEA’s Laboratory Services at the agency’s national head office./PN
