ILOILO City – Two weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte declared that the war against illegal drugs was far from over, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) ordered the relief of its officials and personnel in Western Visayas, including Regional Director Wardley Getalla.
Getalla and his personnel were being swapped with PDEA’s people in Central Visayas (Region 7), the regional director himself told Panay News yesterday.
Getalla received the transfer order on Tuesday night, July 31.
The director would have marked his first full year as PDEA Region 6 director in two weeks.
PDEA-6 spokesperson David Garcia said the swap down to the lowest ranking personnel would formally take effect on Aug. 3.
Getalla’s and his personnel’s transfer to Central Visayas was just as sudden as when they were assigned here on Aug. 15 last year. Then PDEA-6 director Gil Pabilona was reassigned to the agency’s national headquarters and his 20 agents were transferred elsewhere.
But Garcia said this year’s movement of personnel is part of the “usual reshuffling.”
Also, they “have to change personnel for our security reasons,” he said, citing the killing of PDEA Region 7 investigation agent Earl “Baby” Rallos, 48, of Labangon, Cebu City, in an ambush last week.
“It is not because we have low accomplishment in the campaign against illegal drugs,” said Garcia.
According to Getalla, “We may be tasked to help solve the Rallos case.”
PDEA-6 has a total of 103 personnel including Garcia, chemists and technical personnel.
Garcia said only four would be remained – him and three “highly-technical personnel.”
At last year’s sudden removal of Pabilona and appointment of Getalla to Western Visayas, a source told Panay News the major overhaul at the regional office was an operational strategy.
Familiarity established between long-staying PDEA officials and agents and subjects of antidrug operations was a bane to the antidrug drive, the source explained.
Garcia said that in 2017 PDEA-6 ranked first in the whole country in terms of operational accomplishment.
“We maintained that rank this year,” he said.
In his third State of the Nation Address on July 23, Duterte said the illegal drugs war won’t be sidelined.
“Instead, it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began,” he said.
Prior to his Western Visayas assignment, Getalla headed PDEA’s regional office in what was then the Negros Island Region.
He considered his new assignment (Central Visayas) as a “big challenge.”
On July 27, PDEA Region 7’s Rallos was shot armed men while traversing Villalon Street, Barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City.
Rallos, also PDEA-7’s deputy chief of operations, was a member of the Drug Enforcement Officers’ Basic Course (DEOBC) Class 2007-02, “Mapalad” of the PDEA Academy.
“Malaking hamon ito sa amin. Tutulong tayo sa pag-solve ng kaso sa namatay na PDEA member sa Cebu,” said Getalla. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
