PDEA burns P80-M shabu

About 40 kilos of shabu with a street value of over P80 million were incinerated yesterday along with other kinds of illegal drugs by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The drugs came from seizures that resulted in 114 criminal court cases, PDEA chief Anselmo Avenido said.

Also destroyed at the Integrated Waste Management Incinerator Facility in Trece Martirez City in Cavite were a kilo of marijuana worth P25,000, 24 grams of ephedrine worth P31,000, 100 morphine tablets worth P2,100 and two bottles of phentermine acid worth P156.

Avenido said the drugs were destroyed to prevent rogue police officers from pilfering and selling them.

Last July, about 600 kilos of shabu and 112 kilos of marijuana were also destroyed at the same incinerator facility.

Police say many crimes have been sparked by drugs, the most abused of which is shabu. Much of the shabu sold in the Philippines comes from China, authorities say.

President Arroyo ordered a renewed crackdown on illegal drugs in June as part of a wider campaign against crime, which she said had been undermining the country’s economic recovery efforts.

In August last year, Mrs. Arroyo ordered a similar campaign as part of her campaign against crime, which she said had become a threat to the country’s economic recovery efforts.

Last month, police arrested Chinese national Jackson Dy, alias of Li Ya Lan, alleged to be the third largest shabu trafficker in the Philippines.

Dy’s shabu factory, housed in a seaside mansion in Bacoor, Cavite, was so far the biggest busted by police, authorities said.

The factory could produce an estimated 30 to 40 kilos of shabu a day, authorities estimated.

Police also confiscated two jet skis, a yacht and a speedboat at the former beach resort believed used to deliver drugs.