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[av_heading heading=’PDEA: DUTERTE IS RIGHT | Iloilo, 3 other provinces entry points of shabu’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Monday, July 3, 2017
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ILOILO City – Drug traffickers found Iloilo, Guimaras, Capiz, and Aklan ideal entry points of shabu from other parts of the country due to their seaports’ porous security, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6.
From the seaports of Iloilo and the three other provinces, shabu are then distributed to various parts of Western Visayas and possibly even beyond, said Deputy Regional Director Levi Ortiz.
Just this June 28, President Rodrigo Duterte said Iloilo was where shabu was “dinadaan” and from there this was being spread to other parts of the Visayas.
Ortiz declined to identify the seaports but he assured Western Visayans that law enforcement agencies were tightening these ports’ security, especially the major ones.
“These ports are the focus of the police, Maritime Command and Philippine Coast Guard,” said Ortiz.
Among other security measures, dogs trained to detect illegal drugs and explosives are posted in them.
Ortiz, however, expressed concern over the many other obscure, smaller seaports and even village shorelines that are practically unguarded.
“Stringent security measures in the major seaports may drive drug traffickers to use smaller seaports or shorelines where they can dock undetected using small boats,” he told Panay News.
Northern Iloilo, for example, has lots of small seaports, he said.
“PDEA alone could not secure all small seaports. We need the active participation of the public,” he said.
The agency will be coordinating with the police and officials of coastal municipalities and villages.
Ortiz said relentless antidrug operations actually resulted to a “60 percent” drop in the supply of shabu in Western Visayas.
“That’s why nagmahal ang bentahan ng droga,” he said.
The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), too, was insistent that they were winning the war against illegal drugs despite President Duterte’s remark on Iloilo as the “bedrock” of illegal drugs in the Visayas.
PRO-6 data showed that from July 1, 2016 to June 27, 2017 police units across the region were able to arrest 1,742 drug trafficking personalities – 184 in Aklan province, 159 in Antique, 309 in Capiz, 34 in Guimaras, 465 in Iloilo province, and 591 in Iloilo City.
Thirty drug suspects were also killed in antidrug operations of the police the region – two in Aklan, 10 in Antique, one in Capiz, one in Guimaras, eight in Iloilo province, and eight in Iloilo City.
Also, 944 drug users also had themselves voluntarily rehabilitated through a program designed by the Department of Health, said Superintendent Gilbert Gorero, PRO-6 spokesperson.
A “challenge” was how Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, regional police director, viewed the President’s “bedrock” remark.
Policemen were being stirred to eradicate illegal drugs in Western Visayas, he said./PN
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