Palace seeks closer BOC-PDEA coordination amid drug smuggling

The President has his full trust in Customs Commissioner Lapeña, but what’s important here is that the PDEA and the BOC have closer coordination,” Roque said. (ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO)

MANILA — Malacañang on Monday sought for closer coordination between the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) after PHP6.8 billion worth of “shabu” from an alleged Taiwan syndicate had recently slipped past the Customs bureau.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said although President Rodrigo R. Duterte still trusted BOC Commissioner Isidro Lapeña, closer coordination would benefit both departments.

“Ang Presidente po buo naman ang tiwala kay Customs Commissioner Lapeña ‘no, pero ang importante po dito ay talagang nagkaroon ng mas malapit na kaugnayan ang PDEA at saka ang Bureau of Customs (The President has his full trust in Customs Commissioner Lapeña, but what’s important here is that the PDEA and the BOC have closer coordination),” Roque said in an interview over DZRH.

Roque, in a Palace briefing, said there was no reason for the BOC and PDEA to have lack of coordination since Lapeña himself was former head of the lead anti-drug enforcement agency.

“Inaasahan niya na magkaroon ng mas malapit na uganayan ang PDEA at ang Bureau of Customs dahil nanggaling naman po sa PDEA etong si General Lapeña. So walang dahilan para hindi magkaroon ng mas malapitang koordinasyon (We are hopeful that there will be closer coordination between PDEA and the Bureau of Customs because General Lapeña himself came from PDEA. So there is no reason why they cannot have better coordination),” Roque said.

Roque was hopeful that both departments would step up on the sharing of their intelligence information.

“Sana po ang intel gathering nila ay mas matindi at saka mas nagse-share ng information nang sa ganitong paraan ay maiwasan iyong pagpasok ng droga sa loob ng mga cargo na hindi nade-detect ng X-ray (I hope they enhance their intel gathering and sharing of information so that we can avoid the entry of drugs in the cargo which are not detected by X-rays),” he added.

He also emphasized the importance of back-tracking to determine how similar incidents can be avoided in the future.

“Importante na mag-backtrack, hanapin talaga kung saan talaga nanggaling itong mga shipments na ito. At ang susunod, i-red flag talaga iyong mga shipment na kaduda-duda (It’s important to backtrack and find out where these shipments came from. And next time, we have to red flag suspicious shipments),” Roque said.

Roque stressed that with drugs slipping past the BOC, this means drug smugglers are now more “sophisticated” as they now use magnetic lifters, which prevent the shipment from being viewed through the use of X-ray machine.

Increased efforts

Roque, meanwhile, shrugged off remarks that the administration’s drug war was failing, noting that drug smugglers were tapping new “strategies” to get their shipment inside the country.

“I don’t think you can judge the effectivity (of the drug war) on the basis of the haul. It shows we must be doing something right,” Roque said.

However, he acknowledged that government has failed to make a dent in so far as deterring international drug syndicates from importing.

“We have to be relentless in continuing our campaign and we need to discover who are really behind these importations and go after them,” Roque said.

“Kung kulang pa ang ating efforts, dadagdagan pa. Hahanapin natin kung sino talaga yung nagi-import na ‘yan (If there is a lack in our efforts, we will increase it. We will find out who is importing them) and we will deal with them, accordingly” he added.

Moreover, Roque said Duterte will make the investigation on the drug shipment his “priority” and vowed to coordinate with other countries if necessary.

“He (Duterte) wants to know the bottom of who’s behind the importation,” Roque said, stressing that the problem has an international aspect since they are imports from other countries.

“It shows that we need to be ever vigilant against these international syndicates behind the importation of shabu into the country,” he added.

On Friday, the PDEA seized four empty magnetic lifters from a warehouse in Cavite and expressed concern that the drugs they contained may now be circulating on the streets.

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said the magnetic lifters in Cavite were already empty but K9 dogs have positively detected traces of illegal drugs.

Aquino said initial information revealed that the illegal drugs came from Taiwan, Republic of China and the syndicate only used Malaysia as transshipment point but investigation is ongoing.