PDEA-7 Director Wardley Getalla (left) and PRO-7 director Police Brigadier General Valeriano de Leon hold a press conference at the PRO-7 headquarters along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City. CDN Digital photo | Alven Marie A. Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines —The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) has set a schedule for the destruction of confiscated drugs on the first week of December 2019.
In a press briefing on Monday morning, November 4, 2019, PDEA-7 Director Wardley Getalla told reporters that they are hoping to finish their inventory of the illegal drugs under their custody so they could proceed with the plan.
Getalla said since the drugs had to be destructed through thermal decomposition, which costs a lot, they had to first finish the inventory so they can do it all at once.
“Kailangan talaga para practical. Pagsabay-sabay natin ang mga evidence,” said Getalla.
(It has to be that way to be practical. We’ll do all the evidence at the same time.)
It can be recalled that in October, Getalla was invited to speak in front of the Cebu City Council to explain why PDEA-7 has not destroyed the illegal drugs they have confiscated for the last two years.
Read: Lack of incinerator delays destruction of shabu now stored at PDEA-7 repository – Getalla
He gave the same reason, saying the process is costly.
According to Getalla, this coming November 7, they were scheduled to meet with the Regional Trial Court to talk on how they would go about with the regular destruction of the drugs.
Getalla also explained why the destruction of shabu and marijuana are different.
He said, usually, marijuana plantations are in hinterland areas. He said it is not practical if they had to bring the illegal plant all the way to their office.
Getalla said that aside from the evidence needed for the case, the uprooted marijuana plants, under the law, are allowed to be destroyed immediately, even in the same place where they were uprooted, given the safety precaution that civilians are at least 50 meters away.
Getalla then added that the drugs they will be destroying this December will be those with the court order from RTC judges.
Meanwhile, Police Brigadier General Valeriano de Leon, the director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, said that the police will be supporting the plan to destroy the illegal drugs to avoid the possibility of it being recycled. /bmjo