Revamped PDEA targets new drug players in Region 6

SOURCE: Panay News

TOUGH JOB. New Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 director Emerson Margate has his work cut out for him. He has to deal with emerging drug personalities, drug trafficking inside jails and sustaining the gains of barangay drug-clearing operations, among others.

ILOILO City – Drug-clearing operations in barangays would be sustained, according to new Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 director Emerson Margate.

While effective, barangay drug-clearing operations must be unrelenting because “mayroon talaga ‘yang mag-a-attempt na papasok (new players would try to get in),” he explained.

“Alam naman natin na very lucrative ‘tong (illegal drug) business,” said Margate.

Formerly the head of PDEA in Central Visayas, Margate formally assumed his Western Visayas post yesterday.

He and his personnel from Region 7 swapped posts with former PDEA-6 director Wardley Getalla and staff.

Margate also vowed to focus on areas with a history of rampant drug trafficking such as Negros Occidental and Boracay Island in Aklan province.

According to Margate, he knew that Iloilo drug lords Melvin Odicta Sr. and Richard Prevendido were all dead but new personalities would try to fill the void that these two left.

Regarding the illegal drug situation in Negros Occidental, Margate said a group there must be neutralized. He did not identify the group.

PDEA-6 would also be watching closely Boracay Island which is set to reopen this October, said Margate, “and definitely dito sa Iloilo.”

The director also acknowledged the illegal drug problem in Western Visayas jails.

“Biruin mo nasa loob na bakit kaya nakakapagtrabaho pa ‘yan (How do these detained drug personalities manage to conduct business),” said Margate.

This concern needed a multi-agency approach, he stressed, involving the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, local government units which also manage their local jails, the police, and PDEA.

Margate was reassigned to Region 6 a week after his assistant chief of operations in Central Visayas, Earl “Baby” Rallos, 48, of Labangon, Cebu City, was killed in an ambush on July 27.

He hoped nothing similar would happen to any PDEA-6 men under his watch, said Margate.

“Guidance lang talaga and monitoring sa tropa para hindi mangyari itong mga ganito.Hopefully sana hindi na,” said Margate.

Rallos was on his way home driving his vehicle when the shooting incident happened. Witnesses in the area said two men aboard a motorcycle came from the opposite direction.

The back rider shot Rallos.

Rallos tried to get off his vehicle but the gunman returned and shot him again, witnesses said.