THE claim by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that Cagayan de Oro City is one of the transit points for shabu in this part of Mindanao is nothing new; in fact the City Council made mention of this fact about three years ago, when they invited the officials from the regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-10 (PDEA-10) about this report.
In an interview Duterte said a mayor of Parang town in Maguindanao is a noted coddler of drug traffickers, a charge the said official promptly denied. While this made for an interesting story, for a specific point of interest we focus on what Duterte claimed was Cagayan de Oro's status as transit point for shabu.
If we remember it right it was Councilor Edgar Cabanlas who made the claim during a televised hearing in one of the City Council sessions. The head of the PDEA-10 office at the time preferred not to expose himself on TV, by explaining that he works undercover and thus doesn't want to be identified by criminal elements.
The following year in 2004 then Regional Director Rene Orbe took over the helm of the PDEA-10 office and while he admittedly made some impressive crackdowns such as the discovery of shabu storage rooms in one of the warehouses in the city, his work was compromised by one little incident.
This involved the alleged extortion attempt by one of the PDEA-10 agents at his command and when police tried to arrest him, said agent even fought them off, angrily protesting his innocence.
Any suspicions of cover-up were raised when Orbe supposedly guaranteed the missing amount of P20,000 used allegedly as payment for this PDEA-10 agent.
Incidentally instead of being penalized, this PDEA-10 agent was promoted while Orbe was transferred elsewhere. Orbe reasoned that some powerful people wanted him out of the way but he still didn't answer conclusively whether there was anything irregular committed by his people.
And whether there was any truth to that claim one can never know but Duterte's claim of Cagayan de Oro as shabu transit point it seemed as if the drug trade in Region 10 picked up again which may or may not validate Orbe's contention and expose PDEA-10's dismal performance in its anti-drug campaign.
It could be lack of personnel, lack of funds, lack of initiative or whatever reason the PDEA-10 office can give out but amid the attention over the terrorist threat, law enforcement agencies like them should not be caught napping or wanting by the public, let alone public officials like Duterte whose stature can certainly call into question the agency's efforts in eliminating the drug menace.
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