Government workers held for drugs up by 30%

MANILA, Philippines — The number of government personnel arrested for illegal drugs increased by 30 percent in 2017, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said yesterday.

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said 301 government officials and workers were arrested last year, compared to only 231 in 2016.

Among those arrested were 125 elected officials and 27 uniformed personnel.

“More…government workers are involved in the illegal drug trade as shown by the rising number of those arrested,” Aquino said in a statement.

A total of 75,008 drug suspects were arrested in 38,830 operations by operatives of PDEA and other law enforcement agencies last year.

“This is 14 percent more than the operations conducted in 2016….The number of arrested drug offenders grew by 167.35 percent from 28,056 in 2016,” Aquino said.

At least 1,115 government workers have been arrested since 2011 for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon said the increase in the number of arrests was a result of intensified operations, including efforts to weed out scalawags in government.

“We have intensified our operations especially against high-value targets,” Carreon said.