Malacañang Saturday directed the drug enforcement agencies to intensify its war against drug syndicates, as it assured the public that “narcopolitics” will not prevail in the May, 2010 elections.

Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III called on the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to relentlessly hunt after the drug smugglers and step up efforts to put a halt to their drug operations.

“Narcopolitics is very dangerous and very alarming. That is why we have to know the real situation of the drug problem here in our country because if we failed to address that, the results of the elections might be influenced by this drug cartel,” he told in an interview over government-run DzRB.

“We have to protect our children and the youth otherwise we are putting in jeopardy the future of our youth and children,” Bello said.

He stressed the need to intensify the authorities’ operations against dangerous drugs and to imprison all those drug lords and dealers as well as to dismantle all the laboratories of illegal drugs.

Bello said that apart from the country’s security and financial situation, the drug menace will be discussed during Mrs. Arroyo’s last Cabinet meeting for this year in the City of Pines on Tuesday.

During the meeting, PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago said that he will report to President Arroyo on the recovery of the P354 million worth of cocaine in the island barangay of Mina-anod, Llorente, Eastern Samar.