Task force zooms in on ports to prevent entry of illegal drugs

How does one stop the entry of illegal drugs in Cebu?

While totally stopping their entry may be impossible, there is hope that it will be limited through the freshly minted Task Force Haring Tupas (TFHT)

Lawyer Clarence Paul Oaminal, who was tasked by Senate President Vicente Sotto III as Cebu drug coordinator, will head the task force. The TFHT launched a summit last Friday, Nov. 23, attended by the different government agencies assigned in seaports and the airport.

Oaminal said that the seaports and the airport are the entry points of the bigger illegal drug activities. TFHT will also coordinate with local government units that have ports in their jurisdiction because these are also passageways of illegal drugs coming from neighboring islands.

The summit was held at the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. It was TFHT’s first summit but Oaminal hopes that there will be more in the future so that it can craft better strategies to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs.

By next week, personnel from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea) will be deployed at the Bureau of Customs to help check cargoes.

There is also a plan to assign Pdea personnel at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport but Oaminal said they are still negotiating with GMR Megawide, which manages the airport.

TFHT is named as such because it was Haring Tupas, the grandson of Haring Humabon, who, in 1570, drove Spanish navigator Miguel Lopez de Legaspi away from Cebu through a six-month war. This is exactly what Oaminal envisioned for Cebu--to drive away drug lords and eventually clear Cebu of any drug activities. /