MIAA CHIEF HELPS PDEA DETER ENTRY OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Edgardo Manda
has come up with convincing approaches to help neutralize local and
international drug syndicates using the airport as entry point of
transshipment.

Manda ordered the Aviation Security Group (ASG) and Ninoy Aquino
International Airport (NAIA) personnel to tighten inspection measures on
baggage, packages and even bottled water, and body search on all arriving
passengers, including persons with high positions in the government,
military and police, and their escorts in an effort to uncover those behind
the illicit drug activity.

He said the strict imposition of security and inspection measures will help
deter the entry of illegal drugs through the airport.

"This is one way of helping the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA),"
he said.

PDEA reported that transnational syndicates have been using the seaports,
economic zones, airports, post offices and vast sea waters as entry points
of drug transshipment.

Despite the difficulty of the task to uncover drug trafficking, the MIAA
chief is determined to cooperate with various government agencies,
particularly the PDEA, led by Anselmo Avenido, to ensure that illegal drugs
are prevented from entering the country and would not find its way to the
market.

He responded to the directive of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to crack
down one-third of the 175 local and international drug syndicates in a
renewed anti-drug campaign in three months time.

The President earmarked a R1-billion budget and directed PDEA as the lead
agency to neutralize transnational drug syndicates that actively operate in
the country.

"Everyone must get involved in the call of the President to hunt down
leaders of drug syndicates," Manda said.

He requested the Philippine National Police to furnish him with a complete
and updated list of drug traders of large syndicates actively operating in
the Philippines so that the MIAA management could closely monitor if they
have been using the international airport as entry point of transshipment
of illegal drugs.

He, however, vowed to respect the confidentiality of the information so as
not to preempt crackdown operations, saying MIAA authorities are offering
their services to fight the drug menace.

He also asked airport authorities and personnel to double-check the
passports and visas of naturalized citizens arriving at and leaving the
airport terminal if they have been using their ethnic names in an attempt
to conceal their identity to evade the law.