PNP chief Archie Gamboa said the police force has seized some 1,600 kilos of shabu since he took command of the PNP eight months ago or in October last year.
The amount is about a hundred kilos less than those seized during the time of his predecessor, Gen. Oscar Albayalde, who served as PNP chief from April 2018 to October last year.
Gamboa said a total of 2,700 kilos of shabu were seized during Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s tenure as PNP chief from July 2016 to April 2018.
“We don’t want to compare because there might be difference(s) in the situation and different thrusts during the time of the two PNP chiefs,” said Gamboa.
“During the time of chief Bato (Dela Rosa), we saw the aggressiveness of the campaign against illegal drugs and also with the time of chief Oscar Albayalde…We followed different strategies,” Gamboa said.
Gamboa is due to reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 this September. Two of the officers in contention to succeed him are AFP deputy chief for operations Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar and PNP deputy chief for administration Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan.
The high number of shabu seized during Gamboa’s time was largely due to two recent operations in Bulacan and Paranaque City that netted 782 kilos of shabu with a street value of over P5.5 billion.
The operation in Marilao, Bulacan Thursday last week led to the recovery of 756 kilos of suspected shabu worth P5.14 billion and arrest of a Chinese drug trafficker, Yuwen Cai, and two Filipino companions.
Follow-up operations led to the recovery of 36 more kilos of suspected shabu at the vicinity of Uniwide Coastal Mall in Paranaque City on Saturday. The operation led to the killing of Cai’s son, Jin Long, and his Filipino companion after they fought it out with lawmen.
Gamboa led the presentation of part of the 890 kilos of shabu seized by the PNP from January to June this year at Camp Crame yesterday morning. During the period, he said six drug peddlers were killed and 38 others were arrested.
