MACARTHUR, Leyte — The town’s police chief here has expressed concern over resurgence of illegal drugs after the Philippine National Police (PNP) stepped out as lead in the crackdown last October.
Senior Inspector Ariel Salarda is alarmed that drug personalities in their area who yielded to authorities are slowly going back to drug use and drug selling.
Salarda noted the latest report of a drug surrenderer caught in a buy-bust operation at a local cockpit here last week.
Antonio Robin, 32, of Danao village here sold a plastic sachet containing suspected shabu worth PHP500 to an undercover agent, leading to his arrest.
Upon arrest, two sachets containing the same suspected illegal substance were confiscated from his possession. Other amounts found in his wallet were turned over by the police to his wife.
“Robin has been under close surveillance by police authorities in December after the suspect came back from a hiatus in Manila for a number of months,” Salarda said Friday.
The PNP suspects Robin gets his drug supply from Manila.
“Carrying the illegal drugs by land is easier with less strict inspections in terminals and ports,” he said.
Salarda vowed to step up the campaign again as police authorities have been given the green light to rejoin the anti-illegal drug campaign.
In December, President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the PNP, through a memorandum, to return to the government’s war on illegal drugs but in a supporting role, with the PDEA keeping the overall lead in the campaign. (Ahlette Reyes/PNA)
