INSPECTION. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-10 laboratory technicians check the shabu prior to its incineration at a mortuary in Cagayan de Oro on Monday, May 10. (Jigger Jerusalem/davaotoday.com)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, PHILIPPINES – Despite the thousands of persons reported killed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA 10) in Northern Mindanao burned down more than P61 million worth of crystal methamphetamine or locally known as ‘’shabu.”
The illegal substance weighing 9.043 kilograms was incinerated in a mortuary here on May 10.
Benjamin Recites III, PDEA-10 assistant regional director, said most of the illegal substance came from suspected illegal drugs dealers based in Ozamiz City.
Recites said about 7.955 kilos of “shabu” or crystal meth was confiscated by police from Gaudencio and Melodina Malingin of Ozamiz City.
He said Melodina is the sister of the late Reynaldo Parojinog, the former Ozamiz City mayor who was killed, along with several family members and body guards in a police raid in his home in 2017, more than a year after Duterte assumed office.
News reports said Melodina died on September 6, 2020 due to a heart failure at Mayor Hilarion A. Ramiro Sr. Medical Center. She had been in detention since 2017. Two days prior to her death, her brother Ricardo Parojinog was found dead inside the detention facility of Ozamiz City police station.
The members of the Parojinog family who died were among the personalities targeted by the Duterte administration for their alleged involvement in the drugs trade.
Recites said the illegal drugs were seized in areas in Northern Mindanao in which the bulk of it came from Ozamiz.
“Most of the illegal drugs that we had confiscated came from the National Capital Region,” said Recites who also disclosed that there is an ongoing inventory of illegal drugs in the region.
City Councilor Roger Abaday, who was invited to witness the destruction, said it’s good that the drugs were destroyed so these could not be sold back to the streets.
“When I examined the drugs, I noticed these are high-grade, especially those that came from Ozamiz,” Abaday said.
