Cavite shabu lab eyed as rehab center

Plans are afoot to build a rehabilitation center for drug dependents in Southern Tagalog on the 500-square-meter lot of a busted shabu laboratory of a transnational drug syndicate in Tanza, Cavite.

But first, Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, head of the police Anti-Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AID-SOTF), is asking the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to fast-track forfeiture proceedings against the property because neither Jackson Dy, who heads the drug syndicate, nor his wife, Wang Li Na, "is authorized under Philippine laws to own such large real estate properties."

Aglipay said hundreds of drug dependents coming from the provinces are presently undergoing rehabilitation at Camp Bagong Diwa in Barangay Bicutan, Taguig.

"If we can convert the seized property of the drug syndicate in Tanza, Cavite into a drug rehabilitation center, the one at Camp Bagong Diwa would be decongested by hundreds of Southern Tagalog residents," he said.

Aglipay said the AID-SOTF is committed to see to it that they will be a part of the solution to the worsening drug menace and never be a part of the problem.

He vowed that the task force is going to fight the war against illegal drugs to the end.

"The AID-SOTF is going to win the war against illegal drugs because that is precisely the reason for our existence," he said.

On charges that 15 AID-SOTF operatives pocketed 50 kilos of shabu during the raid in Barangay Capipisa in Tanza last July 25, Aglipay said an investigation is underway.

"I will never tolerate any wrongdoing by any of my men," he said, adding that he has expected the accusations because the task force has stepped into the toes of a well-entrenched, highly financed and probably most well-connected drug syndicate.