MANILA — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is now a member of the National Intelligence Committee (NIC), an advisory body that addresses national security issues and concerns.
“PDEA’s membership in the NIC is a result of our request to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to include the Agency in the committee to further strengthen our intelligence capability,” PDEA Director General Aaron N. Aquino said in a statement Thursday.
Under Administrative Order No. 7 dated Sept. 22 on “Reorganizing the NIC to Provide Greater Unity and Cohesion of the Intelligence Community, Amending for this Purpose Administrative Order No. 68 Series of 2003, and for Other Purposes”, the NIC, which shall continue to be chaired by the director general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), shall be composed of the Department of Foreign Affairs, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, PDEA, Philippine Coast Guard, and Office for Transportation Security.
The NIC, through the director general of the National Security Council (NSC), is authorized to call upon any department, bureau, agency or instrumentality of the government to become its member and/or to provide assistance in the acquisition and production of information/intelligence on a regular basis, specifically those necessary in the performance of its functions.
The NIC may designate or invite resource persons from relevant units of the government that are not necessarily involved in intelligence work, but could otherwise provide relevant data to fill in information gaps, support intelligence build-up and boost efforts on meeting or satisfying particular intelligence requirements.
It may also review its existing standard committees, technical working groups and secretariat to determine retention, dissolution, replacement or creation of other related committees and groups to make the NIC more organized, proactive and effective in fulfilling its mandate.
“The fusion of accurate, relevant, reliable and timely intelligence materials among the NIC members facilitates the formulation of national security policies by President (Rodrigo) Duterte and the NSC,” Aquino said.
“Intelligence is the very essence of our work as drug enforcement officers. The success or failure of any legitimate anti-drug operation depends on whether or not we did our homework. Simply put, a genuine victory against illegal drugs relies soundly on solid and accurate intelligence,” the PDEA chief added. (PNA)
