EDITORIAL - Food and drugs delivery

If you have read the news recently, you will get the impression that the drug trade remains very much alive even during these quarantine days. Just recently several people were arrested for peddling drugs in Cebu City, and an alleged drug syndicate leader and his underling were killed after shooting it out with policeman in Minglanilla.

Also recently, a food delivery driver was arrested for allegedly delivering drugs. Not just any paltry amount of shabu, but a kilo of the prohibited substance estimated at P6.8 million.

Police said Baltazar Flores Eranes Jr., 40, resident of Barangay Ermita, Cebu City, was able to use his job as a food delivery driver to be able to go outside his house anytime and also to breeze through police checkpoints to deliver drugs.

Eranes declared his innocence, saying he didn’t know he was delivering drugs, but police claim he has been under surveillance for drug activity even before the lockdowns started.

If Eranes has been moving drugs under the cover of his job, this makes us wonder how many delivery drivers may be doing the same out there.

If this is how some drug syndicates are now moving their drugs, then we definitely have reason to be worried. The syndicates actually have a good set-up going for them. Think about it; as mentioned earlier, food delivery drivers are authorized to leave the house anytime and be anywhere, free of suspicion from the authorities.

Their vehicles allow them mobility and to reach certain areas that the syndicate people might have trouble going. The syndicates also never have to risk any of their regular “personnel” getting caught delivering drugs.

Also, this lockdown situation is making deliveries of various items very common; you will find deliverymen almost anywhere at any time.

Of course, we aren’t saying that all deliverymen are in cahoots with drug syndicates or small-time peddlers, we are sure many of them are honest men who only want to earn a livelihood for themselves or their families. And the delivery business these days is actually a win-win for the different businesses, the drivers, and also the customers; the businesses stay open, the customers get items without risk of getting infected, and the driver gets a job.

However, this is something police must look into, if the big drug syndicates or small-time peddlers are now using or fooling deliverymen to move their products. Because if it is true what Eranes claims --that he did not know he was delivering drugs at all-- then this lockdown situation has created even more victims.