PDEA gets P2.7M equipment, vehicles from int’l anti-drug group

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has received P2.7 million in resources from the Asia-Pacific Information and Coordination Center for Combating Drug Crimes to boost its anti-narcotics drive.

APICC secretary general Park Jae-Uck recently visited the country to strengthen the fight against illegal drugs in the region as part of the advocacy of South Korea’s Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

The advocacy project included a donation of equipment and vehicles worth P2.7 million to boost PDEA’s operational capability in various regional offices in Luzon.

“We greatly appreciate the generosity of APICC to our regional offices in Luzon. We strongly believe that part of the vision of building a drug-free region would entail strong international cooperation with our neighbors in the Asia-Pacific,” said PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr.

The donated equipment include surveillance kits, laptops, split-type air conditioners, cameras, external hard drives, digital voice recorders, computers and motorcycles.

The donations will be fielded for use in PDEA’s regional offices in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and the Cordillera Region.

The APICC, with the help of the PDEA Academy, also conducted a two-day workshop for PDEA’s regional directors, drug enforcement officers and chemists in Luzon.

The APICC counts Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines as among its member countries.

It is a regional drug control center for international cooperation, which shares information on drug trends, the successful investigation of cases and profiles of international drug traffickers among its members.