Ex-PDEA 7 chief to pursue fight in BOC

Yogi Filemon Ruiz vowed he will continue his anti-illegal drug campaign as he assumes as the enforcement and security service chief of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) today.

Ruiz left the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 yesterday, after newly appointed Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña brought him to BOC along with two other PDEA officials.

He said his new duty will take him far from his family in Cebu City, but he accepted it as he can help “take drugs off the streets.”

Ruiz said Commissioner Lapeña instructed him to make sure that no no illegal drugs can slip through the ports.

The BOC figured in a controversy after some of its officials were involved in the shipment of P6.4 billion worth of shabu.

Ruiz was appointed as PDEA 7 director in July 1 last year.

He spearheaded the agency in arresting more than 600 drug personalities and seizure of more than 37,600 grams of shabu with a market value of P444,533,082.18.

Last July 5, PDEA caught Malabago, Badian Barangay Captain Epifania Divinagracia Alvizo and her cohort Ronan Lastimoso Librando, seizing 750.06 grams of shabu worth P2.1 million.

Ruiz said PDEA 7’s drug bust operations and forfeiture of drug personalities’ assets will continue.

PDEA 7 took part in the investigation that led to the filing of the forfeiture of self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones’s P350-million assets.

Atty. Anna Lynn Hernandez was appointed by Ruiz to be the officer-in-charge of PDEA 7 from Sept. 5 until Sept. 11. /