Cuevas disputes, downplays PDEA 'Smallville' report
The region's top cop is disputing and downplaying the claim of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on purported Shabu and Ecstasy proliferation and trade in Iloilo City.
Old unverified news, Chief Superintendent Isagani Cuevas said of the PDEA report pointing to the city's most popular nightspot – Smallville, as druggies' haven.
Reacting to massive news releases quoting PDEA, Cuevas said it is downright unfair to declare "Smallville" or any area in the city as such.
"Yes, Smallville may have been a target before but that was never validated. The information about Ecstasy being sourced in Smallville actually came out back in 2005-2006 from one of the principal suspects of a murder-parricide case. He said then, though not reflected in the sworn statement, that he got Ecstasy in Smallville. There is no Ecstasy (trade) in Iloilo or Western Visayas but if we can validate it, I assure you, we will conduct a raid," Cuevas told reporters yesterday.
Shabu and Ecstasy, both highly-addictive drugs were mentioned by the PDEA in its report with purported street price of P10,000 per gram for Shabu and P1,800 per tablet for Ecstasy.
Cuevas when pressed for comment acknowledged Shabu as possible concern still for the region yet not Ecstasy.
"We just don't have the trade here or elsewhere in Western Visayas," he stressed. And even the Shabu supply has likewise significantly diminished too," Cuevas said.
In fact, the selling price jacked-up due to its scarcity credited by Cuevas to local authorities' strengthened anti-illegal drug campaign.
The PDEA is the government's main arm against illegal drug proliferation and trade yet the police hierarchy has since waged a serious war as well.
"We have our policemen in the area and our intelligence agents... I myself go to Smallville to monitor and you can see that the situation has greatly changed... it is far from "alarming," Chief Superintendent Cuevas ended.