NO LETUP IN DRUG WAR

No quarter will be given to criminal syndicates involved in the
trafficking of illegal drugs.

This was the statement yesterday of Police Deputy Director General
Edgardo B. Aglipay in reaction to a recent United Nations report that
said the Philippines is among the top three sources of shabu in the
world, after Myanmar (formerly Burma) and China.

Aglipay, who is concurrently head of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special
Operations Task Force of the Philippine National Police, said that the
UN report, instead of putting the country in a bad light, should be
seen in the context of the government's success drive against drug
trafficking syndicates.

Last week, Aglipay's men raided a shabu warehouse in Villa Liwayway
Subdivision, Maysan, Valenzuela City. The law enforcers found 147
drums of assorted chemicals used in the manufacture of shabu, two
high-capacity driers and other shabu-processing equipment.

The facility could have easily produced as much as 30,000 kilos of
shabu had its operations not been dismantled by the raid, according to
the police.

The raid is only the latest in a string of successes racked up by the
PNP-AIDSOTF.

Last year, according to an official PNP report, law enforcers
dismantled a total of 22 shabu laboratories and warehouses and
confiscated drugs and paraphernalia amounting to P13.6 billion.

The report added that Aglipay's task force neutralized 21 of 163
identified drug syndicates, and arrested a total of 50,000 persons,
with 34,000 cases already filed in court.

Among those arrested were 43 foreign nationals suspected of
involvement in the manufacture and trafficking of illegal drugs,
mainly shabu.

Because of the success of Aglipay's war on illegal drugs, he is
believed to be in the running for the top PNP post now occupied by
Police Director General Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr. who is set to retire
in December. Speculation is rife that Ebdane may be moved to another
government post even earlier than December.

Aglipay is due for retirement in September. But if President
Macapagal-Arroyo exercises her prerogative and decides to name him as
PNP chief on the basis of his accomplishments in the anti-drug
campaign, he could be asked to stay on even after the compulsory
retirement age so he could lead the intensified war against the drug
menace in the country, sources said.