Remonde says: RP ranks among top shabu producers

Because it dismantled labs

MANILA, Philippines—The branding of the Philippines as a top producer of shabu stemmed from its law enforcement agencies’ success in dismantling illegal drug operations and clandestine laboratories, a Malacañang official said Saturday.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said it was ironic that the numerous inroads of the government agencies in curbing the illegal drug trade earned it the tag as a leading manufacturer of shabu (metamphetamine hydrochloride) from a United Nations agency.

“The irony of it is the basis of that conclusion is the result of the accomplishments of our Philippine dug enforcement agency,” Remonde said in an interview over the state-run Radyo ng Bayan.

“What I can say is that came out because we have efficient enforcement and interception of shipments of shabu and drug laboratories,” he added.

He said that when the President assumed the leadership of the fight against illegal drugs, numerous illegal operations were discovered and dismantled.

But he added that he was not denying that there was an illegal drug problem in the Philippines.

All government agencies, as well as the different sectors in society, have to play their part in eradicating the drug menace, he added.

The UN Office on Drug and Crime, in its 2009 report, said the Philippines was a significant source of shabu used locally and exported to other countries. It said the Philippines ranked fifth in the world in methamphetamine seizures over a nine-year period.

The report also stated that shabu is usually produced in industrial-sized laboratories run by transnational organized crime and staffed by foreign-born chemists.

One of the biggest anti-drug operations in the country was the dismantling of a shabu “tiangge” or compound in 2006 in Pasig City, where illegal drugs were openly sold and used in various stalls located a stone’s throw away from the City Hall.

The tiangge was shown to be in operation however during a raid last week.–Leila Salaverria, Philippine Daily Inquirer