The Regional Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is waiting for the go signal from its director general for the destruction of the recovered 39 bricks of cocaine in Caraga, Davao Oriental.
If PDEA chief Aaron Aquino gives the approval, “then we will destroy it,” PDEA Davao regional director Antonio Rivera said.
“The rule here is that within 72 hours, it should be destroyed,” Rivera said. “It should be burned.”
It was already more than 72 hours or three days that the 39 bricks of cocaine were found in Purok Talisay, Barangay Santiago, Caraga.
On Sunday morning, 36 packs of cocaine were found and another three packs were found the next day.
Rivera said it the cocaine will be destroyed at the incinerator of Holcim Davao plant in Tibungco where the P400 million worth of cocaine were also burned in 2014. Sixty-two bricks of cocaine were found in a delivery van parked at the Sumifru Wharf.
For now, the 39 bricks of cocaine are still under the custody of the PDEA XI.
Rivera said that an investigation is still ongoing to identify the group behind the recovered cocaine.
Sr. Supt. Marcial Mahistrado, the director of the Davao Oriental Police Provincial Office, said Barangay Santiago Kagawad Emelio Bantayan sought help after a resident found suspicious items at the shoreline on Sunday.
After verification, authorities recovered four bundles — three of which contained 10 packs while the other bundle, which was already opened, contained only six packs.
The next day, three other packs were recovered along the shore in the same town.
