(File photo)
MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) will continue to coordinate with local courts for the expeditious prosecution and disposition of drug cases, which resulted in the quick destruction of illegal drugs that are no longer needed as pieces of evidence.
PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said this is for the PNP to be able to destroy around 1.6 tons of shabu that are still in their custody.
“Ito ngayon yung (Right now, this is the) subject of our close coordination with the courts so that appropriate clearance will be done in coordination with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for destruction like this one,” Eleazar told reporters during the destruction of illegal drugs worth PHP1.2 billion at the Integrated Waste Management, Inc. (IWMI) in Barangay Aguado, Trece Martires City, Cavite on Wednesday.
Eleazar said the PNP's Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management is making the necessary interventions for this effort.
For his part, PDEA Director-General Wilkins Villanueva noted that less than 10 courts in the country impose different guidelines on their requests for the destruction of seized illegal drugs.
“We might be forced to name these courts that have yet to act on our requests. We have filed these requests back in 2020. It's already 2021 and we are halfway through the year,’’ Villanueva told reporters.
Since the courts temporarily suspended face-to-face transactions at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Villanueva admitted that their work was slightly hampered as ocular inspections cannot be done virtually.
“But right now, ang korte is tumatanggap na ng face to face interaction (the court is accepting face to face interaction) so I believe it's time now para malaman natin ano na yung status nung mga request namin for ocular inspection (to know the status of our request for ocular inspections),’’ he added.
Meanwhile, Villanueva said their drug rehabilitation program has been affected by the pandemic due to the prohibition on mass gathering.
“So kapag wala kang mass gathering hindi ka makakapag-conduct ng community-based drug rehabilitation program dahil kailangan may gathering. Yun ang nakaka-hinder (If there is no mass gathering we cannot conduct community-based drug rehabilitation programs since mass gathering is needed. That is the hindrance),’’ he added. (PNA)
