ABOUT P21.5 million worth of illegal drugs confiscated in various operations were incinerated by the local police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Central Visayas on Monday, May 31, 2021.
The illegal drugs were incinerated at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes on Junquera Street, Cebu City.
PDEA 7 Director Levi Ortiz said the court had ordered the destruction of the illegal drugs.
The illegal drugs served as evidence by local police and PDEA 7 operatives in their cases. Once those cases have been resolved, the court will then order that the drugs used as evidence be destroyed.
Just before the illegal drugs were destroyed, PDEA 7 and police showed them before members of the media to show that they are not recycling the drugs for illegal purposes.
Ortiz said they assured the public that they are not recycling illegal drugs they recovered from their operations.
He said that the illegal drugs they confiscated and used as evidence are kept in an exclusive evidence room wherein only three people--the PDEA’s chief chemist, the evidence room custodian, and Ortiz--have access to it.
Ortiz said anyone else will need to secure the keys from the three of them.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Marlon Jay Moneva said they still have more drug cases pending before five courts under his jurisdiction.
Each court is handling at least 2,000 drug cases, Moneva added.
Moneva said that while he and his fellow judges are resolving those illegal drug cases, the PDEA 7 can always write the court to inquire if there are drugs within their custody that needed to be destroyed even if certain cases are pending.
Of the P21.5 millon, P7 million are shabu, P21,000 are marijuana and P13 million are assorted illegal drugs whose owners or sellers were not arrested. (AYB / JKV)