PDEA faces big challenge, will tap PNP for support
LIMITED LOGISTICS, MANPOWER
THERE will be no letup in the war on drugs in Region 1 despite the order of President Duterte making the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as the sole agency that will launch and initiate operations in the campaign contra illegal drugs nationwide.
Lawyer Marvin Tavares, PDEA OIC-Regional Director, said the new order will be a much bigger challenge to the organization given its own limited manpower and logistical resources for the campaign.
Tavares said, PDEA Region 1 does not have the resources that the Philippine National Police (PNP) deployed in the war on drug and conceded that PDEA will not have the capabilities to oversee and sustain the campaign in all barangays like PNP did.
He said PDEA only maintains regional and provincial offices unlike PNP that operates from the region to the municipal level.
PDEA Regional Office 1 has only 40 operative agents and 45 technical and administrative officers that include a chemist, pharmacist and lawyers to operate in the region while it’s provincial office in Pangasinan only has 10 agents including the provincial officer.
He said PDEA will continue to tap the Pangasinan PNP for support for its operations in the province.
The presidential order has specifically prohibited PNP from pursuing its Double Barrel Reloaded campaign that includes serving search of warrants and conducting buy-bust operations unless the illegal drugs activity is caught in the act during patrol operations, Tavares said.
PDEA has been tasked primarily to identify and operate against sources of shabu and distribution networks of drug syndicates.
Nonetheless, Tavares is optimistic that with the continued support from the Pangasinan PNP, PDEA can accomplish its assigned mission.
The barangay drug clearing program of the PNP will continue under the supervision of PDEA and the process of declaring barangays and towns /cities as drug-free will continue under the same process established by PDEA, he said.
PDEA plans to set up its own operations before the year ends or early next year at the Sual port and and in Puro Point in La Union to intensify it’s monitoring of activities of drugs syndicates along the coastline of Region 1. (Nora Dominguez)
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