The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) announced Friday, March 18, that the recent successful operations resulting in the seizure of multi-billion peso worth of illegal drugs were unrelated to the May 2022 national and local elections .
In a radio interview over Dobol B TV, PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva said the operations stemmed from the joint cooperation of law enforcement agencies under the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
Villanueva said it “cannot be and should not be” linked to the upcoming elections.
“The main difference between our operations now and before is we share intelligence at pinagtutulungan namin na trabahuhin ang isang main operations. Ito 'yung nangyari for the past months since last year,” Villanueva explained.
“Malakihan nga (illegal drug operations). We cannot relate this to elections and we should not relate this to the elections. Ginagawa na natin ito (We are doing this) ever since,” Villanueva said.
In thw past few weeks, the PDEA has ramped up its reporting of their achievements under the Duterte administrstion's anti-illegal drug operations.
Most recent of which was the anti-drug operation last March 15 where operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Task Force on Illegal Drugs and Quezon Police Provincial Office intercepted three vans containing 1.5 metric tons of shabu worth P10 billion at a checkpoint in Infanta town, Quezon province.
A total of 10 suspects were also arrested during the operations.
Villanueva said drug syndicates have reverted to their old ways and opted to transport drugs through unprotected coastal waters, adding that a number of the shipments came from Mexico, Africa and China.
“Dati kasi pinapadaan sa container, sa customs. Ngayon hindi na pumapasok sa terminals. Dumederecho na. From international waters tapos susunduin ng maliit na bangka from coast natin. Dinadala sa coastal areas na hindi protected (Before, the syndicates coursed the illegal drugs in containers and through customs. But now they do not pass the terminals. They are directly being shipped. From international waters, a small boat will fetch it from our coast. They are brought in the unprotected coastal areas),’’ he added.
The PDEA chief admitted that solving the drug problem would be difficult to do but he said the anti-drug campaign of President Duterte brought great improvement to the country’s drug situation.
Villanueva also appealed to the next elected president to refrain from mixing “politics” in the fight against illegal drugs and to continue the momentum done by the Duterte administration.
“I’ve been here since 2001. Dumaan ako sa apat na presidente. Dapat ang campaign natin sa drugs, walang politics. Isa lang naman ang kalaban natin eh droga (I have served under four presidents. There should be no politics involved in our drug campaign. There is only one enemy, drugs),’’ he noted.