TACLOBAN CITY – Regional Director Antonio Pagatpat of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI-8) disclosed that their office is all set to formally join other government security agencies in combating the proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.

Pagatpat said that no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had issued a directive ordering their agency to join forces with other agencies of the government like the Philippine National Police in addressing the illegal drugs problem particularly hydrochloride methamphetamine or shabu.

“We are set to train some of our agents…to make them more adept and familiar in carrying operations of this nature,” the NBI-8 chief told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

This additional task of the NBI, Pagatpat said, is welcomed by them because an illegal drug has now become the most serious threat the country is facing.

It was learned from him that the decision of the President to let the NBI be directly involved in the anti-drug campaign of her government stemmed from successive raids of drug laboratories in the country.

The biggest of which was based in Mandaue City, Cebu with more than P1 billion worth of shabu and shabu paraphernalia confiscated by government operatives.

Earlier, Chief Supt. Dionisio Coloma, police regional chief, said that Cebu is the major source of the illegal drugs of the region. The illegal drugs coming from Manila and Mindanao as well found their way into the region, the police regional chief added.

Based on the reckoning of Pagatpat, the illegal drugs trade in the region has now become a multi-million-peso activity.

Here in Leyte alone close to P4 million worth of shabu is being sold in the streets a month, he said.

Still, the NBI regional director told Express that the illegal drug situation in the entire region is not that alarming as he also expressed his doubt on the possible existence of a shabu laboratory in the region.

“It could be contained,” Pagatpat said, referring to the proliferation of the illegal drugs in the region.

The NBI-8 chief gave credit to the campaign of the police authorities in the region led by Chief Supt. Dionisio Coloma. The latter had made one of his priorities the elimination of illegal drugs in the region.

Pagatpat, this early, has said that with his agency now formally joining forces with the PNP in solving the illegal drugs problem, this menace might just come to its end.