PDEA Vows to Intensify Campaign vs. Cotabato City’s Shabu “Tiangge”

Cotabato City (PNA) – Anti-narcotics agents vowed to intensify the campaign against illegal drugs trade by dismantling the so-called shabu “tiangges” proliferating in the city.

“We will continue to destroy these dens, people are cooperating because they wanted to put a stop to drug- related violence in the city,” said Regional Director Jeoffrey Tacio of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-ARMM.

Cotabato City administrator, lawyer Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, lauded the efforts of PDEA-ARMM to rid the city of personalities engaged in illegal drug trade.

“We fully support PDEA in its campaign to cleanse the city of illegal drug pushers, drug users, peddlers who become crime offenders to support their illegal activities,” Sayadi said in a radio interview.

Police arrested 17 persons caught in the act of sniffing shabu in three drug dens over the weekend along Jose Lim street.

“The area has been known for its drug dens, even girls and minors are into drugs in this community,” Tacio said.

PDEA agents, backed by elements of the Army Special Forces Battalion, arrested a certain Bong Ibrahim, the alleged illegal drug den operator who was included in the wanted list of illegal drug pushers.

Authorities seized at least Php 13,000 cash and an unlicensed cal. 45 pistol from Ibrahim.

On Sunday, joint PDEA and Army Special Forces operatives raided two illegal drug dens, known in the community as “shabu tiangge” near the Cotabato City slaughterhouse.

Five persons were arrested, including a man identified only as “Mac,” believed to be the operator of the “shabu tiangge.”

PDEA agents also confiscated seven sachets of suspected illegal drugs and empty sachets.

An unlicensed cal. 45 pistol was also recovered from “Mac” with several magazines of bullets.

Sayadi said most crime incidents in the city were drug related, as she welcomed PDEA’s intensified campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs.

She said Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. is hoping the big time drug suppliers will be neutralized too. (PNA) JMC/NYP/EOF