Marcos orders swift, transparent disposal of ‘floating shabu’

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday ordered the immediate and transparent destruction of illegal drugs recovered from the western coast of Luzon this month.

In a presentation at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) headquarters in Quezon City, Marcos said the seized items should never end up in the black market, citing past incidents where confiscated substances were allegedly recycled.

“Dati, alam na alam natin, ‘pag may nahuli, sabihin natin, 100 kilos, ang sinisira na lang kung ano-ano ng balot ang ginagawa, ngunit 20 kilos na lang. ‘Yong 80 kilos na natira ay lalabas na naman ‘yan, maipagbibili pa rin. So, that is what we are trying to avoid,” he said.

(Before, we clearly knew that when, say, 100 kilos were seized, only 20 kilos would actually be destroyed after being rewrapped in various ways. The remaining 80 kilos would reappear and still be sold.)

Marcos orders tighter coastal watch vs floating drugs

At least 1.530 tons of floating shabu have been seized off the coasts of Zambales, Pangasinan, and Cagayan since early June, amounting to around P9.48 billion — the largest drug haul in Philippine history.

PDEA Director General Isagani Nerez said the recovered drugs would be destroyed on Wednesday through an incinerator in Capas, Tarlac.

He added that witnesses from the Department of Justice, local government officials, and media would be invited to oversee the process, including the random testing and loading of the drugs into the incinerator. The destruction process is expected to take 12 hours.

Nerez said PDEA works with other law enforcement agencies during operations to ensure transparency and a system of checks and balances.

“Sa amin sa PDEA, it is impossible. Wala ‘yon. We have enhanced our counterintelligence measures para ma-detect natin kaagad ‘yong mga attempt na magkaroon ng pilferage,” he said.

(In PDEA, that is impossible. That doesn’t happen. We’ve enhanced our counterintelligence measures so we can immediately detect any attempts at pilferage.)

“Sa atin ngayon, no-no. That’s a no-no. ‘Yan ang kabilin-bilinan ng ating presidente — no-no-no sa recycling,” he added.

(Now, for us, it’s a no-no. That’s the President’s clear instruction — no to recycling.)

Marcos reiterated his directive for law enforcers to intensify the campaign against illegal drugs, but in a peaceful and bloodless manner.

He also stressed the need to crack down on street-level drug operations.

“We do it in a peaceful way. It has been described as a bloodless war on drugs and that is what we are aiming for. But nonetheless, despite the fact that we do not kill people that are just suspected of having anything to do with drugs, imbes na ganyan ang ginagawa natin, we are handling the drug problem in a different way,” Marcos said.

(Instead of doing that, we are handling the drug problem in a different way.)

How fishermen found P1.5B worth of shabu in Zambales waters

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