The Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RLECC) in Western Visayas will draft a resolution detailing strategies to tighten the campaign against the entry of illegal drugs in the region, particularly in piers and airports.
“We will come up with policies on how we deal with that,” Brig. Gen. Sidney Villaflor, Regional Director of the Police Regional Office 6 (Western Visayas) and chair of the committee, said at a press conference on Monday, September 25.
Villaflor said they are “very keen” on their campaign especially since there is a lot of activities happening in the region, including the opening of classes, the MassKara Festival in Bacolod City, the upcoming holiday season and the national jamboree of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines in Passi City in December.
He said the resolution will be signed by 20 members of the RLECC to serve as a tool that they can use to ask for additional logistics and other support to address the gaps that are limiting concerned government agencies in performing their functions.
Villaflor said statistics showed an increasing volume of drugs confiscated in the region this year.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 24, a total of 1,283 anti-drug operations led to the arrest of 1,809 street-level individuals and high-value individuals (SL/HVIs) and recoveries of 30,966.48 grams of shabu worth over P210.57 million.
In Iloilo City, three separate operations from Sept. 23 to 24 led to the recovery of 970 grams of shabu worth P6.674 million and the arrest of five HVIs.
The supply came from Manila and was distributed to the arrested drug personalities as per the intelligence report of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO).
“The statistics will clearly state what the projected issue is. Much as we would like to curtail the situation, we could not hide it,” he said, adding, however, that the situation is not very alarming.
Villaflor said the police has been confiscating huge volumes of illegal drugs in their land-based operations but there is a lack of interdiction on seas considering that the region has a lot of airports, piers and ports.
The region’s top cop added that he wanted K9 units to check on cargo.
He also admitted that the advent of technology has made it difficult for them to trace drug proceeds since the payment is now usually done electronically.*PNA