CAPAS, Tarlac — Following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to destroy seized illegal drugs, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday incinerated over P9.4 billion worth of narcotics at the Clean Leaf International Corporation facility in this town.
The President on Tuesday invited the media to witness the destruction of the drugs to ensure transparency.
“We need to make sure the drugs that were seized are destroyed and there is no hope of them coming back, of being sold, of being recovered, of being reported. And we know what other incidents we are seeing,” he said.
“That is why I am here today to see how the system works, so our system will be very, very solid from the seizure of the illegal drugs all the way to its destruction,” he added.
Before the President arrived, PDEA, Philippine National Police and Philippine Coast Guard personnel prepared the seized drugs for burning, including the floating shabu recovered recently by fisherfolk in Northern Luzon.
The drugs were first tested to confirm their authenticity and ensure they had not been tampered with.
Among the illegal substances incinerated were 1,387.5554 kilograms of shabu, 411.3708 milliliters of liquid shabu, 138.8177 kg of marijuana, 0.1230 kg of ecstasy (MDMA), 3,917.4099 grams of cocaine, 232.6 grams of toluene, 0.8020 gram of lidocaine, and various surrendered expired medicines.
The President ignited the incinerator, which was set to run for 10 hours at 700-degrees Celsius.
An additional 12 hours is required for the system to cool down before authorities could check if all the substances had been completely destroyed.
“So after it burns at 700 degrees Celsius, it will not be shabu anymore, it will not be marijuana anymore, it will not be any drug anymore. It’ll be completely ruined. So that’s what we are here to witness,” Marcos said.
He thanked the media present, emphasizing the importance of sharing the drug destruction process with the public for transparency.
“I’m glad the press is here so they can see the process. I am happy I had the opportunity to come here to see the whole system from capture all the way to destruction,” he said.
