COTABATO CITY, Oct. 23 (PNA) -– The local government of Cotabato City has asked Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for the establishment of a separate and special court to prosecute cases involving illegal drugs.
Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. said several cases involving persons engaged in illegal drug trade had been pending or dismissed due to technicality.
“A special court will help solve the proliferation of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu in the city,” Guiani told a news conference.
Earlier, Director Yogi Felimon Ruiz, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PDEA-ARMM), admitted before the Cotabato City council that illegal drugs now proliferate in the city and its market value had gone down due to ample supply.
Ruiz said the latest seizure his office has made was the more than one kilo of shabu from a couple in Barangay Tamontaka, Cotabato City three days ago.
The stuff has a market value of about P7 million. The suspects, now detained at the PDEA-ARMM detention cell, have been charged before the City Prosecutor Office.
Guiani said the mounting number of cases will surely affect the prosecution of cases thus the city is requesting for a special court.
He admitted though that he is yet to receive response from Sec. De Lima. (PNA)