Drugs detection; PDEA to train bar owners, workers

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7 has initiated drug identification and detection seminar-workshop for bar owners after divulging reports that peddlers taking advantage of Cebu’s active night scene sell drugs inside bars.

This, said PDEA-7 Director Yogi Felimon Ruiz, would help restore the public’s confidence in those establishments.

“Ako sila giingnan…that ang epekto ana sa inyong establisyemento (of the seminar-workshop) mas musaka ang confidence sa mga tawo… Kay mapakita man nato sa community nga sila, ang ilang business establishments, (their) personnel are drug free,” he said.

Ruiz led had a closed-door meeting with Cebu City Councilor David Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters, together with more than 20 bar owners, managers, and bouncers yesterday.

Ruiz said the seminar-workshop would empower the establishments to help in the anti-drug campaign, as their personnel would be trained on the latest drug trends and on the creative ways how drugs are traded inside establishments.

“We will be using them as force multipliers. Ato silang i-empower kay sila man ang bar owners. Sila man ang naay security officers, so ato sila tudloan og drug identification and detection,” he said.

The seminar will run for two weeks and will start during the first week of September.

“We will be doing this in the next two weeks, nga ma-train nato sila, para maka-implement sila og drug-free workplace nila,” Ruiz said.

He said part of the measures to determine the effectiveness of the activity is to double-check if the presence of illegal drugs in the concerned establishments has been completely enforced.

While at it, the PDEA personnel, who would be in covert operation, will also be checking on recent information received that street children are being exploited as pickpockets.

These street children, who often end up scot-free for being minors, allegedly have the backing of an organized syndicate, which give them solvents or industrial glue to sniff as substance of abuse. (FREEMAN)