Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino on Tuesday, February 26, confirmed President Rodrigo Duterte remarks that a Colombian drug cartel is now having its operations inside the country.
“Tama ang ating Presidente nung sinabi niyang pumapasok na ang Colombian drug cartel sa atin kasi based doon sa nakuha nating representative sample sa Matnog, Sorsogon noong 2018, lumalabas na itong cocaine na ito ay sa Colombia (Our President was right when he said that a Colombian drug cartel has already entered our country because based on the representative sample we have obtained from Matnog, Sorsogon last 2018, it was found out that this cocaine came from Colombia),” Aquino told GMA’s Unang Balita in a phone interview.
The PDEA chief said these drug syndicates are making the country a “drug hub” for cocaine and that they might be using the cocaine blocks recently discovered floating on Philippine shores as a diversionary tactic to smuggle in more illegal drugs into the country.
“Sabi ko nga tatlong teorya ‘yan: number one, transshipment point. Pangalawa, ‘yung ating diversionary tactic na ginagawa ng drug syndicate, at ‘yung pangatlo kung naisakay nila ito sa speed boat nila. Itong mga smuggler ay makikitang nafi-feel nila na sila ay mahuhuli o masasabat ng mga awtoridad, ito’y tinatapon sa karagatan and later on ire-recover din naman ito, kaya nga lang hindi lahat nare-recover (As I have said there are three theories: number one, transshipment point; number two, the drug syndicates are doing diversionary tactics; and number three, if they were able to put these drugs on board their speed boats. Whenever these smugglers feel that they can be caught by the authorities, they throw the drugs into the sea and later on recover it, but not all of it),” Aquino stressed.
In his speech during the first National Assembly of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas in Pasay City on Monday, Duterte said the recovery of cocaine bricks in the Philippine waters is an indication that the Medellin group of Colombia has set foot in the country.
The President said the drugs came from old trawlers and that global positioning system (GPS) devices were attached to it before these were thrown into the sea.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier reported that 36 blocks of suspected cocaine were recovered anew on Sunday along the shoreline of Davao Oriental. Meanwhile, 34 similar bricks were also found on the same day in Surigao del Sur.
Despite the recovery of the drugs worth millions of pesos, Aquino said the government is still winning on its campaign against illegal drugs.
“Based sa ating mga arrests at mga operations naman natin, ay talagang nananalo naman tayo sa giyera sa iligal na droga. Maliban diyan meron naman tayong lumabas na survey sa SWS (Social Weather Stations) na seven out of 10 Filipinos believe na kumokonti na ang drug users sa ating bansa (Based on the number of our arrests and operations we have conducted, we are really winning in the war on illegal drugs. Aside from that, there is also an SWS survey which states that seven out of 10 Filipinos believe that there are fewer drug users in the country),” he noted.
According to the Fourth Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey released on February 16, 66 percent of adult Filipinos said the number of drug addicts in their area has “decreased,” while 14 percent said it has “increased” and seven percent said it has “remained the same.”
The pollster said those who believe that there are fewer drug addicts last year was the “highest” in Mindanao with 83 percent, followed by Visayas with 71 percent, Metro Manila with 67 percent, and Balance Luzon with 54 percent.
[READ: Many Filipinos see drop in number of drug users in their area — SWS]