US report: Illegal drug trade in Metro down

By Jose Katigbak STAR Washington Bureau

Law enforcement officials in the Philippines seized nearly $160 million worth of narcotics in 2006, almost double that of the previous year and reported a noticeable decrease in the supply of crystal methamphetamine or "shabu" in Metro Manila because of aggressive raids against clandestine drug labs, according to a US State Department report in Washington.

In an annual report to the US Congress released on Thursday, the State Department said there was evidence that insurgency groups operating in the Philippines funded their activities, in part, through the trafficking of narcotics and arms, as well as engaging in money laundering through alleged ties to organized crime.

It said police arrests for drug-related offenses in 2006 dropped to 8,616 people, from 15,268 people the previous year because of the government’s strategy of focusing on key traffickers and producers rather than a larger number of less important targets. But the value of narcotics seized almost doubled from $85,323,555 the previous year.

In its 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) the State Department said police raids in Manila have forced drug lords to shift their shabu production to the provinces.

In areas where the labs are located, such as central Mindanao, methamphetamine can be obtained at prices even less than in 2005, but in Manila the current price has more than doubled, the report said.

The shortage of shabu has increased the demand for marijuana, resulting in higher market prices.

But lack of resources, especially fuel for helicopters necessary to access remote sites in the mountains of Luzon and Mindanao, has made it difficult for authorities to eradicate marijuana cultivation, the report said.

There are at least 120 marijuana cultivation sites throughout the mountainous areas of nine regions of the Philippines – many of them inaccessible to vehicles. Most of the marijuana produced are for local consumption, with the remainder smuggled to Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan, the report said.

The Philippines is a transshipment point for the export of methamphetamine of foreign manufacture to Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, and the United States. Most of the chemicals for local shabu production are smuggled into the country from China.