THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Friday expressed concern over the alarming increase in the number of minors being involved in illegal drug activities in the country.
Undersecretary and PDEA Director General Jose Gutierrez said that some of these children were used by drug syndicates as drug pushers, while others work in clandestine laboratories or in cultivating marijuana plants.
He added that from 2003, a total of 845 minors aged seven to 17 were arrested for violating Republic Act (RA) 9165, also known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002.
The anti-illegal drug agency has already arrested 85 minors this year, with 34 percent of them caught selling illegal drugs.
PDEA believes that the sudden increase in the number of minors arrested for drugs is somehow connected with the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which exempts children 15 years old and younger from criminal liability.
Gutierrez said that drug syndicates were taking advantage of this law and using children to do their dirty work because they knew that minors would be exempted from the measure.
Calls to review and amend RA No. 9344, which was introduced by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, have been raised by various lawmakers and law enforcement agencies because it reportedly affected the country’s anti-crime campaign.
Most of them, however, are not against the law.
In May, PDEA revealed that drug syndicates were using a new scheme, in which Koreans were being used as drug couriers instead of Filipinos.
The scheme was discovered following the arrest of a Nigerian and a Korean in a recent buy-bust operation in Quezon City.
According to Gutierrez, the suspects were identified as 34-year-old Samuel Egbo and 22-year-old Yunji Choi.
The two reportedly tried to sell half a kilogram of cocaine worth P2.5-million to an anti-illegal drug agent posing as a buyer.
Based on the information gathered by PDEA, Egbo—a member of a West African drug syndicate operating in the country—is one of the main facilitators behind the recruitment of Filipina drug couriers.
One of his recruits, Elizabeth Batain, was one of the three Filipinos executed in China on March 30.
The Nigerian’s role was to provide the couriers with plane tickets and hotel accommodations bought with stolen credit cards. –Jefferson Antiporda, Reporter, Manila Times
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