PDEA posts all-time high 15.27-B shabu seizure in 1st quarter of 2019

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) seized 776.06 kilos of shabu worth 15.27 billion in the first quarter of 2019, its highest haul since its inception in 2002.

PDEA Director General Aaron N. Aquino said the agency’s total haul for the first quarter of the year surpassed by 103.64 kilos worth 1704,752,000 the combined seizure of 672.42 kilos of shabu worth 14.58 billion during the first quarters of 2009 to 2018.

Aquino said the record seizure of shabu during the period is the result of the series of bulk volume of shabu seizures in Cavite, Muntinlupa, and Manila wherein a total of 716 kilos were seized worth billions of pesos.

“This is the highest recorded shabu seizure for the first three months of the year in PDEA history. It also more than doubled compared to the second highest first quarter seizure which was recorded in 2015 with 314.47 kilos worth 12.14 billion,” Aquino said.

He added that the 2,034 anti-drug operations conducted and the 2,818 drug personalities arrested by PDEA during the same period are also the highest since 2009.

“This is an increase of 76.10 percent and 72.35 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2018,” Aquino said.

“This volume of seizures is an indication that we are conducting high-impact operation and hitting high-value targets,” he added.

The PDEA chief said the agency remains focused in the implementation of anti-drug advocacies such as Balay Silangan, for surrendered drug personalities, and Sagip Batang Solvent for children hooked on illegal drugs.

Aquino also cited the strengthened cooperation, collaboration, and coordination by PDEA with foreign counterparts for the exchange of intelligence information.

Critics, however, insisted the entry of billions worth of illegal drugs only showed the Duterte administration’s failed campaign against illegal drugs.

But Derrick Arnold Carreon, PDEA public information chief, thinks otherwise asserting that the large volume of illegal drugs seized by PDEA and other anti-narcotics agencies is a testament of the country’s successful war on illegal drugs.

He lamented that the confiscation prevented the billions worth off illegal drugs from being sold on the streets.

Despite limited resources and the archipelagic geography of the country, Carreon said PDEA has remained steadfast in performing its illegal drug confiscating tasks to the hilt.