P19.9 million seized drugs destroyed

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) office in Zamboanga peninsula destroyed P19.9 million worth of illegal drugs, mostly shabu, on Thursday.

PDEA regional director Emerson Margate said the illegal drugs were disposed through thermal destruction in a boiler facility of the Permex Producer and Exporter Corp. in Barangay Ayala in this city.

Margate said 2.5 kilos of shabu valued at P17 million, 15 kilos of marijuana worth P1.8 million and 40,000 grams of ephedrine worth P1 million were destroyed.

He said the illegal drugs, which were collected from various regional trial courts in Zamboanga peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, were seized in anti-narcotics operations since August 2019.

“They were all covered by court orders and destruction order from the director-general of PDEA for those not covered by any case filed before any court of law,” Margate said.

President Duterte has ordered the destruction of seized illegal drugs in government storage to prevent unscrupulous anti-drug operatives from recycling them.

Meanwhile, in Benguet, marijuana plants with an estimated value of P11.4 million were destroyed in Kibungan town.

The marijuana plants were discovered in in eight plantation sites in Sitios Pagidey and Batangan in Barangay Tacadang, Benguet police director Col. Elmer Ragay said.

The cultivators of the plantations eluded arrest.