PHILIPPINE National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde said Monday, October 22, that they have not seen an overflow of illegal drugs in Metro Manila as claimed by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director Aaron Aquino.

“As of this time, wala nga kaming nakikita na talagang overflowing ‘yung supply of shabu lalo na dito sa Metro Manila. What we see is the normal supply pang araw-araw,” he said.

(As of this time, we have not seen an overflowing supply of shabu in Metro Manila. What we see is the normal supply every day.)

Earlier, Aquino said prices of shabu on the streets went down from at least P6,000 per gram from July to P1,400 as of October.

He said it was due to the one ton of illegal drugs contained in the magnetic lifters that allegedly slipped past the Bureau of Customs and were discovered in a warehouse in GMA Cavite on August.

Although the said magnetic lifters were found empty, Aquino suspected that they also contained illegal drugs worth P6.8 billion, as PDEA also intercepted such item at the Manila International Container Port with at least P4.3 billion worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).

He said such report is still being validated and once confirmed, Albayalde said there is nothing else they can do but to double their effort to curb the continuous problem on illegal drugs.

“If PDEA will be able to substantiate their allegation, then okay, walang problema sa amin yan, but kami as of this time, wala kaming nakikitang ganun (...there's no problem with it, but as of this time, we have not seen it). So we cannot connect on what they are saying actually. Let them substantiate their statements,” said Albayalde.

“Basta on our part, we will double time our effort kung pwedeng marecover lahat ‘yung tone-toneladang sinasabing nakalusot yan (We will double our effort to recover those tons of drugs). If we have to triple time our effort, we will do it,” he added. (SunStar Philippines)