Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 14) – President Rodrigo Duterte has instructed the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General to coordinate with courts to come up with protocols in destroying confiscated drugs.
“I will direct the Secretary of Justice to talk to the Supreme Court to get random sample. The inquest fiscal must get a sample, in any direction that he wants. Then, those should be tested immediately,” said Duterte during his weekly meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases on Wednesday.
Duterte said the random sample of confiscated illegal drugs must be tested thrice before its immediate burning to prevent storage and recycling of such substances.
“Kung marami ang shabu na involved, there should be a fiscal on duty to take random samples at ibigay doon on the spot,” the President explained. “Ibigay ang sample na kuha niya and a test be made, three trials, to certify that it’s shabu.”
[Translation: If there is a huge amount of shabu involved, there should be a fiscal on duty to take random samples and be given to him on the spot. The samples given should be tested in three trials to certify that it is shabu.]
Duterte, a former fiscal himself, elaborated the on-the-spot testing of confiscated drug paraphernalia will compliment the need in presenting probable cause that will solidify cases against arrested drug suspects.
“The certification of the inquest fiscal must be taken in face value, that those are really shabu,” he said.
During the meeting, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told the President he communicated with Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva about the matter. Roque said Villanueva told him of an existing court circular to immediately destroy confiscated drugs, once it is confirmed illegal.
“We have issued a court circular that there should be no storage. So test, inventory, destruction,” Roque said, explaining the court circular on the immediate destruction of confiscated illegal drugs.
During his last national address on Oct. 5, Duterte ordered all seized shabu to be destroyed by this week.
In compliance to the President’s order last week, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año reported in the IATF-EID meeting on Wednesday that ₱8.16 billion worth of shabu have been destroyed. He added that the Philippine National Police destroyed 1.2 tons of shabu while the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency burned 600 kilos of the illegal substance.
Año also said around 369.69 kilos of shabu will be destroyed by the police on Thursday in Tanza, Cavite, while the destruction of the remaining 700 kilos is still waiting for a court order.
“These kilos of shabu will be immediately destroyed to prevent recycling and to break its supply in the market,” Año said.
Duterte made illegal drugs as his centerpiece program upon assuming the presidency in 2016. Around 5,000 drug-related suspects were charged under the anti-illegal drugs initiative Oplan Tokhang, which is also criticized for the alleged extra-judicial killings committed during its implementation.
