Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. has asked the House of Representatives to investigate the recent seizures of illegal drugs in his province.
He said he would file a resolution on Friday, if House offices are open, or at the latest on Monday to formally propose the inquiry.
“We are saddened and alarmed by this turn of events in our beloved province, one of the growth centers in Central Luzon. Pampanga is not known as the home ground of drug traffickers, but the latest drug confiscations are giving it a bad image. If this is an incipient problem in our area, let us nip it in the bud,” he said.
Gonzales sought the investigation in aid of legislation a day after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla revealed that the authorities have seized 530 kilos of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico town.
Remulla said the contraband entered the country through the Subic Freeport and those behind the shipment, including some foreigners, were still being pursued.
Gonzales said the drug seizure in Mexico town is the latest in a series of drug confiscations in Pampanga.
In the latter part of last month, police reportedly recovered 200 kilos of shabu in a vehicle abandoned in the parking lot of a supermarket in Barangay Mabiga, City of Mabalacat, he said.
“The estimated street value of the contraband is staggering – P3.6 billion for the seized shabu in Mexico and P1.3 billion for the Mabalacat shabu,” he said.
He added that he and other lawmakers would be interested in finding out who are the persons involved in the drug shipments, how these entered the country and where the substances were being distributed.
Mayor Crisostomo C. Garbo, meanwhile, said he was deeply concerned and disturbed by the recent incident involving the discovery of a significant amount of suspected shabu in an abandoned vehicle within his city, and assured the residents of Mabalacat City that they are taking this matter very seriously.
The Pampanga lawmaker pointed out that the recent confiscations highlight the gravity of the illegal drug problem in the country.
He commended law enforcement agencies involved in seizing shabu in Mexico, Mabalacat and other areas, including the interception of shabu worth more than P400 million along the North Luzon Expressway in Pampanga in the middle of 2022.
Gonzales urged these agencies and local and barangay officials to strengthen and heighten their surveillance and monitoring of drug traffickers and other lawless elements in their areas.
“The drug problem and other illegal activities are a concern of both the national government and local government units,” he said.
He also called for the revocation of business permits of Subic Freeport locators involved in the entry of contraband and the warehouses and other business establishments where the shipments were hidden and seized.
