P1.36 billion shabu from Vietnam seized

MANILA, Philippines — Around 200 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride valued at P1.36 billion were intercepted at the Manila port, officials announced yesterday.

Agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) confiscated the illegal drugs found in a shipment from Vietnam.

Based on information from the Vietnam Anti-Narcotics Police Department, the shipment originated from Laos.

PDEA assistant secretary Renato Gumban said the cargo passed through Haiphong, Vietnam before being sent to Hong Kong where the container was transferred to another ship bound for the Philippines.

The PDEA’s counterpart in Vietnam had issued a notification when the ship left Haiphong, allowing the PDEA to coordinate with the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, according to Gumban.

Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno said packets of shabu were concealed in 50 cardboard boxes.

“We will continue to implement President Marcos’ order to make our streets safe from pushers and users of illegal drugs,” he said. “One of our jobs is to work with the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation and the PDEA.”

The BOC has conducted 520 operations against illegal drugs since 2025, Nepomuceno said.

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the government is winning the war against illegal drugs.

“We see that this is the result of the cooperation among countries here in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” Remulla said. “This happened in Laos, this happened in Thailand and now it came from Vietnam. You see that if countries are helping each other, a lot will happen. The question here is, why in 2022 to 2026, a record number of interdictions happened in the ports of the Philippines?”

Remulla said the amount of illegal drugs confiscated by the BOC in the last four years was higher compared to 2000 to 2022.

“This proves that the President’s program is about the interdiction. We did not target only the peddlers. We get it from the source itself. The question here is, was the war on drugs effective?” he said.

The price of shabu increased through interdiction, Remulla said.

“We will coordinate with Vietnam to determine who is behind the shipment. And we will not stop to see who is really the consignee or who should get this shipment. The entire economy of drugs has to stop, and this is a first step,” he said.

Authorities have yet to identify the consignee of the drug shipment.

The Philippines was tagged as the intended destination of recent drug smuggling attempts that were foiled in Laos and Thailand. –  Emmanuel Tupas