ICPO vows no let-up campaign vs illegal drugs

By Jennifer P. Rendon

The Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) vowed a relentless campaign against illegal drugs despite putting behind bars known drug personalities in the metropolis.

Major Shella Mae Sangrines, ICPO spokesperson, said they remain committed to sustaining the war or fight against illegal drugs.

“There will be no let up on our campaign. There’s no room for laxity and complacency,” she said.

From April 16 to April 30, different ICPO units conducted 17 operations that led to the arrest of 34 persons.

Sangrines said that most of them, or 29 individuals, are considered street-level individuals (SLIs) while four are high-value individual (HVI) drug personalities and one newly-identified druggie.

For the said period, ICPO confiscated 252.5095 grams of shabu with a standard drug price of P1,717,064.

The other day, Colonel Joeresty Coronica, ICPO director, said illegal drug trade has weakened in Bakhaw a few weeks since he assumed post.

Illegal drug personalities based in Bakhaw, a village once labeled as Iloilo City’s drug haven, reportedly transferred to other areas in Iloilo City. Others have relocated to the province.

He said that this is now the challenge for anti-drug operatives to dismantle the refuge areas of the remaining drug personalities.

“As I’ve said, even if illegal drug trade has waned in a certain area, there’s more reason that we should sustain our intensified anti-illegal drug campaign,” he said.

Coronica said the gains that the ICPO have – from arrests of high-value individuals to lowering the supply coming into the metropolis – should be even bolstered further.