PDEA asked to focus on Fourth District

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Fourth District Rep. Benhur Salimbangon is calling the attention of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority to strengthen its campaign against illegal drugs in his district, especially in Bogo City.

Salimbangon said that the report of Bogo City Mayor Celestino “Junie” Martinez regarding the presence of gangs and drug peddlers in the city is alarming.

Salimbangon said that PDEA should not only look at the illegal drug problem in the said city but also in other towns in the district as well.

Salimbangon said that Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez has also expressed alarm over the illegal drug problem in one of the barangays in his town.

“I am calling the attention of PDEA to look into this illegal drug problem in my district especially in Bogo City,” Salimbangon said.

Martinez earlier said that some high schools students are being used as drug couriers and that perhaps a syndicate is behind the proliferation of illegal drugs in the city.

Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. in a statement assured stakeholders in the campaign to stamp out illegal drugs in the country that President Benigno Aquino III’s administration is fully behind their efforts and promised to mobilize all government resources to win the war against narcotics.

The executive secretary likewise emphasized that apart from the concerns stemming from the enforcement of anti-illegal drug laws and court hearing, it is also important to come up with a unified and comprehensive database on narcotics.

Ochoa, who is also the chairman of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, added that the successful conviction of drug lords and elimination of drug syndicates remain the greatest deterrents against the production and proliferation of illegal drugs.  (FREEMAN)