BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The regional chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that leads the government’s anti-narcotics campaign said most crimes in the country, especially killing can be linked to illegal drugs.
This raises the possibility that murder cases here could be brought to a low if drug distribution can be minimized.
This was one of the possibilies discussed by Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez during his meeting this morning of 4 July 2022 with lawyer Alex Tablate, regional director of the PDEA in Western Visayas.
Tablate met with Benitez on his first full day in office before the new chief executive met with City Hall department heads to discuss shooting incidents here that Tablate said are “mostly related to illegal drugs.”
This city has seen a spate of shooting incidents since June 2022 until recently when Benitez was inaugurated 1 July 2022.
Benitez said Tablate told him 60 percent of crime, especially killing, is related to drugs, an angle PDEA is looking into.
