ROLE OF ANTI-DRUG AGENCY CITED

QUEZON CITY - Retired Gen. Anselmo Avenido, chief of Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA), over the weekend said the antidrug agency
"does not nor thought of harnessing private individuals as field agents."

Appearing at the weekend radio program "Handog na Pag-asa," he made
the clarification on the wake of two separate incidents of arrest on
alleged PDEA agents for extortion activities in Central Luzon.

He told program hosts broadcast/journalist Gem Bilasano and Belen
Gonong, and Ed Castillo, an anti-drug advocate, that the PDEA has
tapped fieldmen from the Philippine National Police (PNP), the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Bureaus of Customs and
Immigration in its effort to rid the country of prohibited drugs.

"Handog," now on its first month, is a joint project of the Philippine
Broadcasting System (PBS) Radyo ng Bayan (RNB), the National Press
Club (NPC) Committee on Education and Scholarship, and the Seagulls
Flight Foundation, Inc., (SFFI), a leading local drug rehabilitation
center.

In the one-hour radio interview, the PDEA official took exception to a
published report (not in the Manila Bulletin) that the Philippines is
fast becoming an exporter of prohibited drugs including shabu and cocaine.

Avenido pointed out that records PDEA obtained from the United States'
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have categorically denied the news item.

He said news of this import must be doubled check because at stake is
the integrity of the Filipinos on one hand and the Philippines on the
other.

At the same time, Avenido said the PDEA, in compliance to the
directive issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has intensified
its drive against the illicit trafficking of prohibited and banned
drugs and stop drug addiction on the helpless youths.

He urged the public to help the PDEA in its objective as he cited the
important role of the citizenry play in the success of the anti-drug
campaign.