Smoke rises from a funeral home in Cebu City where illegal drugs are being disposed of. | Photo Courtesy of Alven Marie Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government has promised that the incinerators for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) are on its way.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said that as early as December 2019, the late Councilor Antonio Cuenco already passed a resolution allotting P2 million for the purchase of incinerators for the agency.
The councilor, who died of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in June 2020, was able to ensure that the incinerators for the destruction of confiscated illegal drugs would be part of the 2020 budget.
The city council has approved in 2019 the purchase of two incinerators for PDEA-7 as a form of assistance to the agency who said that the reason they could not dispose of the illegal drugs immediately was because of their lack of equipment.
Read: PDEA-7 to get two incinerators from Cebu City
On October 13, 2020, the PDEA-7 disposed of P77 million worth of illegal drugs in a funeral home in Cebu City, and most of these drugs were confiscated in operations conducted in Cebu City.
The mayor said that the incinerators were undergoing the tedious purchase process, but the city government would ensure that these pieces of equipment would be delivered.
“We will pursue the purchase. We can also use this incinerator to dispose of hospital wastes,” said the mayor.
He said that the city would want to ensure that these illegal drugs would not be recycled upon confiscation and this would also help the PDEA-7 function more efficiently.
As for the police, Labella encouraged them to continue their efforts against illegal drugs.
“I commend the Cebu City Police Office led by Police Colonel (Josefino) Ligan for their relentless pursuit against illegal drugs. Amid the pandemic, we did not take for granted drug-related problems,” said the mayor.
“This should serve as a warning for those who are still involved in illegal drugs that the police are directed to be relentless in anti-drug operations,” he said.
The mayor also praised the CCPO for conducting operations without shedding blood as he said the city condemned extrajudicial killings.
Still, if the suspect would resist with arms and if the lives of the police would be in danger, the mayor said they should not hesitate to defend themselves./dbs