PDEA lets lab equipment "rot?"

CEBU, Philippines - Millions of pesos worth of sophisticated laboratory equipment intended for the use of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Cebu City are just being kept unused at the PDEA regional office on R. R. Landon Street for the past years.

PDEA-7 director Adrian Alvariño said the equipment are just being stored by them at their conference room believing that if these will be used without proper storage they will be destroyed.

Alvariño’s announcement that the government had purchased some sophisticated laboratory equipment for the use of the PDEA in Cebu surprised those who attended the 888 News Forum at the Marco Polo Hotel yesterday.

A few days ago, PDEA officials was forced to send to their head office in Manila for confirmatory testing the three kilos of white-powder that were seized from a Chinese national couple because they have no capability of doing it here.

Former Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal supported Alvariño’s statement that PDEA needs a new building for their headquarters because what they are using now along Pelaez Street is too small for them and not fit to host the laboratory equipment.

After she learned of the problem, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia assured Alvariño during their meeting at the Capitol yesterday that she will work for the construction of a PDEA building at the province-owned lot adjacent to the Cebu PNP provincial office in Lahug.

Oaminal explained the establishment of a PDEA laboratory in Cebu would make it easy for the government agents, including the police, to secure laboratory results to support the filing of criminal charges against drug suspects.

In a related development, Alvariño said there is nothing to be embarrassed and there is no reason for them to apologize that the white-powder substance seized from the Chinese couple in Mactan Cebu International Airport had been found negative of dangerous drugs during a confirmatory test in Manila.

He explained it would have been embarrassing and unlawful if the PDEA hurriedly filed a case against the foreign nationals without basis.

 “The PDEA has spared innocent persons from being unjustly prosecuted and has saved the government of precious time and resources that would have been spent in the preparation and filing of the case that was surely bound for dismissal for want of legal basis,” Alvariño said.

“It is more prudent to free guilty persons that send an innocent one to jail. It is better to err on the side of caution.”

Aside from the white crystalline powder, the Customs personnel at the airport also seized US$20,000 from the two Chinese nationals.

Bureau of Customs (BOC) Cebu district collector Ronnie Silvestre said he had ordered the legal department to determine probable cause for the issuance of a warrant and seizure detention so the amount will be forfeited in favor of the government.

Central Bank law provides that nobody is allowed to bring in and out of the country an amount more than 10,000 US dollars, unless if these will be formally declared before the departure or arrival.

The two Chinese nationals Tek Man Wong, 54, and Xiu Yu Tan, 27, went to Silvestre’s office the other afternoon and ask for the release of their money because they will already travel back to Macau City, but their request was denied. –(FREEMAN)