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[av_heading heading=’ PDEA-6 SHAKE-UP | WV director, deputy, agents replaced ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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ILOILO City – There’s a major shakeup at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 as the Duterte administration steps up its campaign against illegal drugs.
Atty. Gil Pabilona, regional director, was removed from Western Visayas yesterday and reassigned to PDEA’s national headquarters.
The change at PDEA-6, though, is not cosmetic. It is top-to-bottom, according to no less than the agency’s director general Isidro Lapeña who came over to announce the overhaul.
Some 20 agents of the regional office will also be reassigned elsewhere, said Lapeña.
The exact date of the agents’ transfer is yet to be determined, however.
Lapeña also confirmed that Pabilona’s deputy, Levi Ortiz, had been reassigned to the Cagayan Valley region (Region 2).
A source at PDEA said the major overhaul at the regional office is an operational strategy.
Familiarity established between long-staying officials and agents and subjects of antidrug operations is a bane to the antidrug drive, the source explained.
Just last week during the Iloilo City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (ICADAC) meeting, Pabilona disclosed that Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and other elected city officials were not in their watch list or protecting drug personalities in the metropolis.
Pabilona further said the city government, and especially Mabilog, was on the right track in clearing the city of illegal drugs.
President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly tagged Mabilog a drug protector, a charge at the city mayor vehemently denied.
According to Lapeña, Pabilona was actually doing well in Region 6, and much better than the previous regional director, Paul Ledesma who was reassigned to the agency’s central office in July last year.
Lapeña said Pabilona’s reassignment to the central office should be considered a promotion after a year’s stint in Western Visayas.
It was during Pabilona’s stint at PDEA-6 that suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. died.
The suspect was shot to death by unidentified assassins at the jetty port in Caticlan, Malay, Aklan on Aug. 29, 2016.
A complaint for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 was also filed against another suspected drug lord, Richard Prevendido. This forced the suspect into hiding, thereby slowing down the Prevendido drug group’s operation.
Since July last year after the Philippine National Police launched Oplan Double Barrel, the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, a total of 1,915 drug personalities have been arrested in Western Visayas, data from the Police Regional Office 6 showed.
From July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017, 20,598 drug personalities surrendered to police stations across the region.
The new PDEA-6 director is Wardley Getalla who used to head the agency’s regional office in the now dissolved Negros Island Region.
His deputy is Melvin Estoque whose prior assignment was as PDEA deputy director in Cebu.
“Thank you to the Ilonggos for their cooperation, and to local government officials for helping us in our drive against illegal drugs,” said Pabilona yesterday.
Prior to his Region 6 assignment beginning July 2016, Pabilona was PDEA’s director of Legal Prosecution Service in Eastern Visayas./PN
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