PDEA-6: Drug supply to rise by 20%

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Region 6 projected an increase of 20 percent of drug supply that might enter Iloilo within the next two months.

PDEA-6 legal officer Ronnie Delicana said the 20 percent projected rise is mainly due to the coming city's Dinagyang Festival on January 2012, but he could not estimate how much of this increase would enter the city.

"There would be tourists and visitors. So, we deemed that pushers would increase their supply for a possible higher demand," Delicana said.

Delicana however could not determine if there would also be an increase in the street price of illegal drugs, particularly shabu.

The current street price of shabu is pegged at P6,000 per gram, a drop from the P10,000 per gram price a couple of months ago.

"We could not base the price on the law of supply and demand. There are other factors that come into play, as far as the illegal drug trade is concerned," Delicana said.

Besides supply and demand, illegal drug dealers also take into consideration the effective police and PDEA operations. "If there is a high supply and then there are a lot of anti-illegal drug operations, it could still affect the pricing," he said.

Adulteration of illegal drugs would also be taken into account. "If shabu is highly adulterated, the price would go down," Delicana said.

He said that, a few weeks back, PDEA-6 operatives have came up with strategy to counter possible proliferation of illegal drugs for the months of December and January.

Since Yogi Filemon Ruiz, PDEA-6 regional director, assumed post several months ago, there was a decrease of apprehensions made.

But it was part of the strategy to go after medium-scale pushers and big-time distributors, while leaving street pushers and runners to the police, said Delicana.

"While we have a decrease in apprehensions, the confiscated illegal drugs were higher in volume and value," he said.

Last Friday, PDEA-6 operatives arrested a certain Beauty dela Cruz at Brgy. Bakhaw, Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

Information showed that dela Cruz has links to a known drug personality who is presently incarcerated at a BJMP jail with his wife for alleged violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act.