New PDEA Chief Named

Over a week after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested the eldest son of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla for drug importation, President Marcos has ap-pointed a new PDEA chief.

Retired police general Moro Virgilio Lazo will succeed Wilkins Villanueva as director general of PDEA, Undersecretary Cheloy Garafil of the Office of the Press Secretary confirmed on Thursday night.

The PDEA is an agency under the Office of the President, mandated to lead the government’s fight against illegal drugs.

Villanueva shared on Facebook a copy of Lazo’s appointment paper signed by Marcos on Oct. 19.

Remulla’s son Juanito Jose Remulla III, 38, was arrested by PDEA and members of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group in Las Piñas City on Oct. 11 for his alleged involvement in the importation of P1.3 million worth of kush or high-grade marijuana.

Lazo is a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Maharlika” Class of 1984. He served as director of the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s elite Special Action Force. He was also a member of the Presidential Security Group during the term of the late president Fidel Ramos.

Aside from these, Lazo served as chief of the PNP firearms and explosives office, provincial police director of Benguet and Cagayan and regional director for Central Luzon.

In a Facebook post, Villanueva expressed gratitude for serving at PDEA for 20 years.

“It is with profound gratitude that I close my two decades of professional service to God and country in the field of drug law enforcement,” he said.

The PDEA, in a statement, welcomed the appointment of its new director general.

Marcos last month said he would sustain the war against illegal drugs but would focus on preventing the use of banned substances and rehabilitating drug addicts.

“The war on drugs will continue but we have to do it in a different way,” Marcos said in an interview on ALLTV.

“Even as we speak, there (is) a working group putting together... They knew war on drugs. We are looking more for the upstream, upstream of the problem, the prevention. Let us teach the children: ‘Do not go there. You won’t achieve anything. Most of those who went there were either jailed or are now dead. So why would you want that?’” he said.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte has been accused of committing crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over deaths tied to his drug war.

More than 6,000 drug suspects have been killed in Duterte’s drug war based on government data but the former chief executive insists that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the matter.

In March 2018, Duterte ordered the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, after former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced a preliminary examination was underway into the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war.

The Philippines officially cut ties with the international court on March 17, 2019, exactly a year after the Rome Statute’s revocation.

Marcos earlier said he is not inclined to rejoin the ICC, since the justice system in the country is working. – With additional reports from Emmanuel Tupas