THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is asking for more than P500 million in additional funds for the recruitment and training of more anti-illegal drugs agents.
PDEA chief Isagani Nerez said the agency has more than 2,000 agents nationwide but this is not enough to effectively fight drug-related issues in the country.
Nerez said the PDEA has not realized that it will play a “major role” in the fight against illegal drugs since RS 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022 was implemented.
“For us, we only have personnel of 2,898, the whole of PDEA. At sa mga probinsiya natin, ang PDEA lang sa every province hindi lumalampas ng 20 personnel (And in the provinces, the number of PDEA personnel are less than 20 per province),” he added.
Nerez said PDEA needs P593.8 million additional budget for 2026, which will be used for the recruitment of at least 500 intelligence officers, including their training and procurement of firearms, vests, and helmets.
He said the same number of recruits will also be needed in the succeeding years.
“For every individual recruit, ang kailangan natin is P1,028,000, kasama na ang training, lahat-lahat, pati sweldo. And if it’s ideal, we are given 500 new recruits a year. So that pagka 500 new agents, madadagdagan naming ‘yung dini-deploy namin sa probinsiya by at least mga 30 (For every individual recruit, we will need P1,028,000 that includes training, and everything, like salaries. And if it’s ideal, we are given 500 new recruits a year so we can increase the number of agents to at least 30 per province),” he added.
A representative of the Department of Budget and Management advised PDEA to submit a Notice of Organization Staffing and Compensation Action so the budget for its recruits can be included in the next budget cycle.
The DBM said PDEA is allowed to fill in 275 vacancies this year but “we cannot allocate funds to non-existing positions.”
“So, we need to establish the position first before we can allocate funds,” the DBM said.
After the discussions, the finance sub-committee approved PDEA’s more than P4.8-billion budget and was deemed submitted for plenary consideration.
The panel also approved the P1.24 billion proposed budget for the National Security Council, and P2.79 billion for the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency after closed-door deliberations, since matters discussed concerned national security.
