Train agents on drug mule profiling, PDEA urged

SEN. Raffy Tulfo yesterday urged the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to establish a system or program that would train its personnel to become experts in drug mule profiling.

During the budget hearing on the proposed 2025 budget of the PDEA, Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo told senators the agency does not have trained personnel to profile drug mules entering the country.

He likewise said that their K9 units lack training in detecting cocaine, opium, and heroin.

Tulfo said his proposal for PDEA agents to undergo the necessary training will prevent the entry of drug mules, especially those transporting cocaine.

“You don’t have that kind of system, so, every day, drug mules can sneak in, especially if they are carrying cocaine because our canines can’t smell cocaine. So, the drug mules carrying cocaine can enter the Philippines in that case,” Tulfo said.

“Have training from other countries on how to profile a drug mule and then train personnel from the Bureau of Immigration, customs, airport police, and others,” he also said, adding that the PDEA should likewise start training its canines how to detect cocaine.

Tulfo also said the PDEA should deploy K9 units to the processing center for general aviation flights so passengers of chartered flights can be subjected to illegal drugs search.

He said there is a high possibility that passengers of chartered flights are using general aviation terminals to transport illegal drugs since they are not subjected to strict inspections before and after flights, unlike ordinary airline passengers.

During last week’s budget hearing on the 2025 budget request of the Department of Transportation, the Manila International Airport Authority said that a processing center for general aviation flights has been set up at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 4, or the old domestic airport.

The MIAA said this is where passengers of chartered flights are strictly screened by agents of the Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Quarantine, and PNP Aviation Group.

It said that the processing center was created to prevent the likes of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, or Guo Hua Ping, from leaving