By Luel Galarpe/ PNA
CEBU CITY — Law enforcement agencies in Central Visayas were able to confiscate more than 80 kilograms of shabu in 2018.
The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) seized a total of 62 kilos, or exactly 62,603.57 grams last year, while the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Region 7 (PDEA-7) recovered 18 kilos.
Drug Enforcement Regional Director Wardley Getalla said Tuesday the PRO-7 is expected to confiscate a much bigger volume of drugs than the PDEA-7 because the police have more manpower to conduct operations regularly.
“You must understand that the PDEA-7 has limited personnel compared to the PRO-7 which has police stations in different parts of the region,” Getalla explained during the Association of Government Information Officers–Philippine Information Agency (AGIO-PIA) 7 forum here.
The PDEA-7 only has less than a hundred personnel, but despite the manpower shortage, Getalla said they were able to arrest 312 high-value targets in 35 high-impact operations conducted last year.
He said an operation is labelled “high impact” when it yields 500 grams or more of shabu.
Regional police information officer Supt. Maria Aurora Rayos, on the other hand, said last year’s total drug haul was about 60 percent higher than in 2017, which registered 38,225.65 grams.
Rayos said they cannot yet give the equivalent value of the seized drugs in pesos as the price of shabu in the market dropped from PHP11,800/gram to PHP6,800/gram sometime in the middle of 2018.
“The price of shabu went down by almost 50 percent sometime mid-2018 as a result of our intensified anti-drug operations,” Rayos said.
Getalla said the 18 kilos of shabu seized by PDEA-7 last year has an estimated value of PHP151 million.
Meanwhile, Getalla said the packs of cocaine recently found on the eastern shorelines of the country are not intended for distribution in the Philippines.
