By LITO RULONA
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents
MAYOR Oscar Moreno has called for public support for the government’s impending war on illegal drugs when President-elect Rodrigo Duterte assumes as the country’s leader.
Moreno said this even as a Camp Alagar official sounded alarm bells over the problem on the distribution of illegal drugs in northern Mindanao.
“We will support the incoming administration on this,” said Moreno even as he urged barangay officials in the city to prepare to carry out the anti-drug campaign in their respective villages this early.
Moreno however cautioned authorities against being overzealous, saying they should guard against abuses while enforcing laws.
“We can enforce the law without violating the law. We can enforce the law the way it should be enforced by upholding the law. Nothing can be worse than the law being enforce by a lawbreaker. Nothing can be worse than law enforcers being disobedient to the law,” he said.
The distribution of illegal drugs in the region is very alarming, said Supt. Surki Sereñas, Camp Alagar spokesman.
Sereñas said law enforcers seized illegal drugs valued at some P18 million during the first quarter of this year alone.
“In the second quarter nga wala pa mahuman, dako-dako pud atong na confiscate karon. For the month of April and May alone, we had P1.5 million worth of illegal drugs confiscated,” he said.
But Sereñas said that compared to other police regional offices in the country, Camp Alagar stood out and is in the list of top performers in terms of the seizure of illegal drugs, mostly shabu.
He said the police filed 406 cases against drug suspects across the region during the first quarter. For the second quarter, some 221 drug cases were so far filed.
Sereñas said the most recently catch was about three kilograms of illegal substances. While it fails in comparison to other regions where confiscated drugs are by the barrel and amount to billions of pesos, “it’s still alarming because of the street value of the seized substances.”
He added: “Daghan na kaayo ang nabiktima ani.”
Sereñas said that while totally eradicating illegal drugs in northern Mindanao remains to be a tall order, the police have “already lessened their (drug dealers’ market.”
Chief Supt. Lyndel Desquitado, Camp Alagar’s outgoing chief, has given the go-ahead to mandatory drug tests for police officers starting on July 1 to show support for Duterte “hardline approach” against the illegal drug trade and other forms of crime.
“PRO-10 personnel support the incoming President’s interest to weed out rogues in uniform as well as to restore and uphold the integrity of the organization and public’s trust with the conduct of mandatory drug tests among all personnel and intensified efforts to eradicate illegal drugs as majority of heinous crimes in the country are drugelated,” he said.
Sereñas said those who would test positive for drugs would face dismissal proceedings.
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