(Eagle News)–Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino on Monday, Sept. 16, admitted illegal drugs recycling was rampant among law enforcers, even among PDEA agents, an admission, a senator said, of the failure of law enforcement.
Aquino made the admission under questioning by Senator Panfilo Lacson during the Senate finance panel’s hearing on the proposed P2.497-billion budget of PDEA for 2020.
“Ang puntos ko dito, not even PDEA is exempted,” Aquino told reporters.
He noted, however, that PDEA was already pursuing a female drug lord he refused to name who bought the recycled drugs.
But Senate Minority Franklin Drilon said Aquino’s admission was one “against the interest of the law enforcement agency.”
According to Drilon, what the PDEA chief said is given the “highest credibility.”
“When the PDEA chief says there is rampant recycling among law enforcers, you give that the highest credibility because this is an admission that las enforcement is failing from the very law enforcer himself,” Drilon told reporters.
President Rodrigo Duterte has waged a war on drugs since he assumed office in 2016.