Justice grinds slowly indeed for suspected drug peddlers arrested by operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the National Police drug enforcement units, with 2,698 drug cases filed almost a decade ago in Western Visayas, are still pending in various courts.

Supt. Roybel Sanchez, Western Visayas PDEA regional director, yesterday attributed the clogging of drug cases in courts to lack of judges to resolve the complaints.

Bacolod City, with 943 drug cases pending deliberation in various courts, is next to Iloilo with 973 cases, while there are 301 pending cases in Negros Occidental, PDEA records show.

Sanchez reported that PDEA and PNP arrested 322 of the 841 drug personalities in Region 6 last year, with 142 of them listed in their drug watch list.

Of the 322 arrested drug personalities, 139 were apprehended in Bacolod City, and 115 in Negros Occidental, PDEA records also showed.

The PDEA and prosecutors of the Department of Justice has clashed over the controversial order to release the so-called “Alabang Boys” allegedly arrested for drug trafficking.

Sanchez said they are not affected by the so-called PDEA-DOJ row, and even welcome the congressional hearing.

“It even challenges us to double our efforts in our anti-drug campaign,” he added.

PDEA records also showed that there are five local drug groups operating in Western Visayas, two of them operating in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.

Of the 424 drug-affected barangays in the region, Sanchez said 68 are in Negros Occidental and nine in Bacolod City.

He added that they have not monitored the presence of nay shabu laboratory in Region 6, although they have reports of the cultivation of marijuana plants in pots.

Sanchez also said they are intensifying their drug-awareness symposiums in schools and barangays.*GPB

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