PUERTO PRINCESA City – The Western Naval Command (WesNavCom) based in this city has recovered yet another set of packages containing suspected illegal drugs floating in waters off Puerto Princesa on Saturday, October 11.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Provincial Director Christopher Torres on Sunday said that the latest recovery – the 4th within two weeks, was discovered by WesNavCom personnel some 1.2 nautical miles southeast of Puerto Princesa City, the provincial capital of Palawan, while conducting regular maritime patrol at the West Philippine Sea.
Torres added that the latest recovery was the biggest so far in Palawan, with each package weighing more than one kilogram and having an estimated street value of more or less P200 million.
The packages were inside two sacks, with each sack containing 18 packages, which were turned over by WesNavCom to PDEA at the Naval Detachment Oyster Bay in Barangay Bahile here.
PDEA-Palawan Provincial Officer Christopher Torres said the items were immediately subjected to an initial sampling test through Raman spectrometer that yielded positive for cocaine hydrochloride.
“Based on the Dangerous Drug Board, cocaine has a street value of P5,300 per gram, so if we are going to estimate 36 packages (with one brick in each package) and one brick weighing more than 1 kilo, you can do the math,” he said.
While there was still no concrete evidence that would lead to the origin and destination of the package, there is a possibility that the latest recovery is connected with the previous packages, Torres said.
“This is possibly connected to the first recoveries because they are within the same area,” he said.
“But just like what I said earlier, our previous seizures were shabu (crystal meth) and marijuana and this is the only (2nd) time that we recovered cocaine,” he added.
Authorities had earlier recovered nearly P80 million worth of drugs along the same waters. Packs of high-grade marijuana with a combined value of P20 million were found in these waters on September 30 and October 8, while packs of cocaine valued at P56 million were recovered on October 9. The illicit drugs were found by fishermen who turned them over to local authorities.
Torres said the cocaine recovered on Sunday would be brought to their national office in Manila and subjected to profiling and forensic examination to determine the origin of the packages. (Geraldford Ticke © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
