Drugs agency worried with lack of personnel

By Ronron
July 31, 2007

An official of the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has expressed worry about the agency’s ability to perform because of its current lack of personnel.

Assistant Secretary Rodolfo Caisip, Deputy Director General for Operations of PDEA, told a news forum yesterday in Camp Crame that the agency currently only has 104 personnel after some 500 personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were recalled effective July 4 as mandated by law.

“We are really quite worried because PDEA is operating nationwide. With this, we really can’t perform because we are really lacking in number,” Caisip said in Filipino.

He said the PDEA is currently monitoring about a hundred local illegal drugs syndicates and six foreign syndicates in the country, which they hope to strike on soon.

Caisip took pride in the fact that almost 50 clandestine laboratories and over 40 illegal drugs warehouses were dismantled by different operations led by the PDEA in the last five years, or since 2002.

“This recall of police personnel will really result to a setback in our operations but it will only be temporary,” Caisip said.

The recall of the 500 policemen to the PNP last July is provided for in Section 86 of the Republic Act 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. It is the same law that created the PDEA.

Caisip said that while they are in close coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the PNP, and the Bureau of Customs in the conduct of their operations, having their own personnel is equally important.

Caisip said they are currently requesting 200 policemen to be reassigned for a six months to one year at the PDEA, 80 of which already have the approval of PNP chief Gen. Oscar Calderon but still awaiting the final action of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

The move is based on Executive Order 218 that allows PDEA to tap personnel of the anti-illegal drugs task forces of various agencies like the PNP and the NBI.

Caisip said this is meant to fill in the job that is supposed to be done by 400 PDEA agents and employees still to be recruited and trained this year.

Caisip said they are finding consolation in the fact that 107 policemen are seeking to transfer to the PDEA because they will no longer be trained from scratch.

Based on the plan, the PDEA wants to have 1,943 personnel to be able to function well, said Caisip. These include agents, technical people and civilian employees.

He said PDEA has a budget of P600 million only per year./DMS