Tacloban City – A total of 59 bricks of cocaine valued at P354 million were recovered by a composite team comprised of elements from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 8 and the Philippine Air Force (PAF) along Eastern Samar shores, authorities disclosed here Thursday.

The dangerous drugs were discovered by fishermen from the island barangay of Mina-anod, Llorente, Eastern Samar. Members of said composite team informed media that initially, last Tuesday, two bricks of white powder substances believed to be cocaine weighing 1 kilo each were initially turned over to the Llorente municipal police station by fishermen Jonel Cagayan, Christopher Alido and Niño Busa.

PC Supt. Mario Sandiego, PNP-8 Regional Director said upon receiving reports of the find, police responded at once and went to the site where said cocaine were found and discovered more brick packages containing the illegal substance in the possession of fishermen. In all, 26 brick packages were found.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Dionisio R. Santiago said operatives from PDEA Regional Office 8 immediately proceeded to the location on board a military helicopter provided by the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Representatives from the agency took custody of the brick packages and brought the latter to the Agency’s forensic laboratory in Quezon City, Manila for confirmatory examination.

On Wednesday, further search led to the recovery of more bricks of cocaine. As of press time, a total of 59 bricks are now in the possession of the PDEA in Tacloban City. Each brick contains an estimated P6 million, or a total of P359 million.

Colonel Anselmo Junsay, TOG-8 Commanding Officer whose team conducted the aerial search of waters in the area, disclosed that there were bricks of cocaine also found in the municipality of San Policarpo, Eastern Samar, some 50 kilometers north of Llorente.  This, he said, is an indication that the cocaine bricks have been floating in a wide area and that the drug volume could be more than what was found and now in the possession of PDEA.

According to Dangerous Drug Board Undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal, the composite team is still conducting the search for more cocaine bricks in the  coastal towns of Eastern Samar and that, indeed, the team is not discounting the possibilitythat more cocaine bricks might have been washed ashore or still drifting in the sea along the coastal municipalities of Eastern Samar.

Oaminal said the authorities are conducting further investigations as to why this volume of drugs has been dumped in the area.

He also said initial findings indicated that the shipment of cocaine came from a source in South America as the suspected cargo ship carrying the drug haul was en route to Hong Kong from the South American continent, and passing through the Pacific Ocean.

The DDB Undersecretary also disclosed that the suspected ship carrying the cocaine had already been apprehended in Hong Kong by Hong Kong police.  However, upon inspection, the ship was no longer found to be with the prohibited drug.

Oaminal theorized that when the crew of the cocaine-bearing vessel was tipped-off by its intelligence network, and sensed that they were already under surveillance by international drug enforcement agencies, they dumped the drugs off Samar Sea to avoid arrest from authorities.

He said he will call for a review of the country’s baseline security and ask that stricter inspection be made of international container vans entering the country. Oaminal also said he will request the Department of National Defense (DND), of which the DDB is a member of, to report to the Board in its January 21, 2010 meeting on the baseline security protocol of the country and to suggest measures how to prevent similar incidents from happening.