PDEA-7 gets new building

CEBU, Philippines - After two years of construction, the provincial government finally turned over a two-storey building to the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency-Region 7 yesterday morning.

Construction of the new PDEA building started in March 2012. The building sits on a province-owned  lot in Sudlon, Lahug adjacent to the Cebu Provincial Police Office.

The new office will house the agency’s drug laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment amounting to P9 million. The equipment will enable the regional office to conduct its own drug tests.

Rene Orbe, PDEA’s assistant secretary and deputy director general for administration, said the new building would enable the agency to fulfill its thrusts of seizing “high-value targets” and conducting “high-impact operations”.

Orbe said PDEA is intensifying its campaign against illegal drugs, what with syndicates taking advantage of the province’s booming economy.

PDEA-7 Officer-in-charge Esperidion Javier said earlier that Cebu is considered the area where the illegal drugs trade proliferated the most in Central Visayas, followed by Bohol and Negros. He also identified Cebu as a transit point for illegal drugs that are being transported to Luzon and Mindanao.

Governor Hilario Davide III assured PDEA-7 of continued support from the provincial government for all its programs. –/JMO (FREEMAN)