EDITORIAL- Drug trafficking hub

The Philippine National Police is “recalibrating” its campaign against illegal drugs after President Duterte promised a “relentless and chilling” war. It might have to be recalibrated some more, with special focus on the Bureau of Customs as drug trafficking central. The BOC will need help in conducting a thorough internal cleansing.

Last Friday, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency seized magnetic lifters in a raid on a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez town in Cavite. The lifters were empty but the same as the two seized by the PDEA from the Manila International Container Terminal last Tuesday, which contained 500 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu valued at P4.3 billion. PDEA officials estimate that the empty lifters in Cavite, which bore traces of shabu, were used to transport about a ton of the prohibited drug, with a street value of P6.8 billion.

When the PDEA seized the drugs in Manila, BOC officials said they had waited for a month for the consignee to claim the shipment, which was misdeclared as doorframes. PDEA agents said they believed five or six other large drug shipments had been smuggled into the country in the past months.

In May last year, 604 kilos of shabu from China valued at P6.4 billion were waved through the BOC’s so-called green lane. But BOC agents, acting on a tip, traced the drugs during raids conducted together with the PDEA and National Bureau of Investigation on two warehouses in Valenzuela. The full details of how the drugs breezed through the BOC remain a mystery.

President Duterte, who has given top priority to his war on drugs, would want to know the role that certain BOC personnel may be playing in the proliferation of prohibited drugs despite his bloody campaign. The illegal drug trade is big business, and it’s not implausible that a bureau notorious for corruption will have personnel involved in the lucrative trade. The President can show them how chilling he can get.