EDITORIAL — Illegal drug destination

Has the Philippines become a regional hub for illegal drugs?

This question was raised when authorities in Laos intercepted on Oct. 1 a private jet transporting 521 kilograms of shabu valued at P3.5 billion. The drugs were reportedly bound for the Philippines; two Filipinos were among those detained in Laos.

On Oct. 7 in Thailand, anti-narcotics agents also seized 1,178 kilos of shabu on a fishing boat. The drugs were packed in 39 sacks concealed in a secret compartment in the stern of the boat. Initial reports said the drugs were also bound for the Philippines, although the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency disputed this, saying the boat could have been headed for Malaysia or Indonesia.

This week, officials of the PDEA, Bureau of Customs, police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government presented 200 kilos of shabu intercepted at the Manila International Container Port.

The shipment, with an estimated street value of P1.36 billion, was packed in 200 vacuum-sealed plastic bags concealed in 50 hollowed-out cardboard boxes stowed in a 40-foot shipping container that arrived in Manila on Oct. 6. The shipment was declared as regular cardboard boxes and consigned to an address in Imus, Cavite.

Vietnam law enforcement and customs authorities reportedly tipped off their Philippine counterparts about the shipment. 

The drugs came from Laos, passing through Haiphong in Vietnam and then Hong Kong before arriving in the Manila port. The consignee’s address in Imus City’s Barangay Buhay na Tubig appeared to be fictitious, according to officials led by Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.

That’s a lot of drugs smuggled through the country’s biggest port. Whoever is behind the shipment clearly believed the smuggling would succeed.

Multiple agencies are moving to determine if the recent drug smuggling operations in the region are linked, and if a single network is behind them.

Remulla had openly tagged Edrieza Nasser Rimbang as the alleged brains and financier of the foiled shabu shipment in Laos. Rimbang, a former parliament member of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has denied the accusations. He has yet to face the PDEA.

While it is good that the shipments were intercepted, the inevitable question is how many others have managed to enter the country.

Such large-scale drug trafficking operations cannot be undertaken without the involvement of well-connected individuals. Authorities must ferret out these operators and clamp down on the drug menace. 

The Duterte camp and other critics have warned that the illegal drug scourge has worsened because of the Marcos administration’s alleged kid-glove approach to the problem. The government must prove the critics wrong.