COURTESY CALL. Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr.(center) welcomes Police Regional Office in Western Visayas Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky (fourth from left) who paid a courtesy call on March 13, 2024. Defensor, in a media interview on Wednesday (March 20), said they discussed the idea of tapping the Bantay Dagat to monitor the entry of illegal drugs in coastal lines. (Photo courtesy of Balita Halin sa Kapitolyo)
ILOILO CITY – Iloilo’s Bantay Dagat will boost the anti-drug campaign as it focuses on coastal and shoreline areas of the northern and southern parts of the province.
Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said Bantay Dagat, whose principal task is to go after illegal fishing, could be tapped into the anti-drug watch as they are beefing up operations against illegal drugs using ports as their entry and exit points.
Defensor said they could ask barangay officials of coastal areas to assist them in their anti-drug watch.
“We will involve them in keeping watch of our coastlines as a possible entry of drugs in the province. We have talked to our provincial, and regional directors that we will involve the Bantay Dagat in monitoring the situation,” Defensor said in a media interview Wednesday.
The governor raised the proposal during the courtesy visit of Police Regional Office in Western Visayas (PRO6) director Brig. Gen. Jack Wanky, together with Iloilo Police Provincial Office director Col. Ronaldo Palomo on March 13, 2024.
He said they are looking at more measures to boost the campaign, as currently, they are strengthening the capacity of the Philippine National Police in the ports to detect and prevent the entry of drugs.
“It entered our mind to engage Bantay Dagat because Bantay Dagat does not only mean illegal fishing. Even before our direction for Bantay Dagat together with the northern Iloilo alliance is not only illegal fishing but the management of the Visayan Sea- the environment and the illegal activities there,” he added.
The proposal will be discussed during the next meeting of the northern Iloilo alliance and in the south, where there are coastlines.
Defensor said the entry of illegal drugs through coastlines “is a case of smuggling, except that it’s a worse case because what they are smuggling are illegal per se and not only ordinary goods.”
Since Wanky assumed as regional director last month, the massive anti-drug campaign yielded 1,805.50 grams of shabu valued at PHP12.277 million and apprehended 157 drug personalities from Feb. 15 to March 15, 2024. (PNA)
