CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu Provincial government is providing a building that will house Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 and the first PDEA crime laboratory outside of Manila.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has made a decision to build a new office with laboratory capabilities for the PDEA in Central Visayas on province-owned property in Sudlon, Lahug where the Cebu Provincial Police Office and the Special Reaction Unit headquarters are situated.

Garcia said the provincial government will build the laboratory for use by PDEA-7 for it to be more efficient in its work, especially in conducting laboratory analysis and investigation.
She said with PDEA-7 having its own laboratory here, will no longer be any need to go to Manila for laboratory analyses of, say, suspected illegal substances.

Garcia said at present, speculations of switching of evidence on its way to Manila for laboratory test are inevitable. She cited a recent incident where media and the public have speculated that the evidence seized from two Chinese nationals at the Mactan Cebu International Airport has been switched when it tested negative during confirmatory tests which were conducted in Manila.

Last Tuesday, PDEA 7 Director Adrian Alvariño revealed in a media forum that a crime laboratory equipped with multi-million-peso sophisticated equipment that will check and determine illegal substances will soon rise in Central Visayas.

Alvariño revealed the development as calls for a local crime lab surfaced following the recent incident involving two Chinese nationals who were suspected of carrying illegal drugs that turned out negative.

Alvariño pointed out that said multi-million-peso worth of sophisticated equipment have already been delivered to the regional office of PDEA 7 but he said that they are still waiting for the construction of a PDEA building which can house the equipment to be set up.

"Hopefully, we can speed up the conduct of examination of suspected substances without having to send it to our main office in Manila," said Alvariño.

The construction of a PDEA building was raised last year but Alvarino said the bidding has not started yet. He was optimistic, though, that the building and crime lab will be erected within the year.

Former Dangerous Drugs Board Vice Chairman Paul Oaminal, who was also a guest at same 888 News media Forum, called on authorities to set up a PDEA crime laboratory in the region considering that Cebu is located here and other provinces in the region also need a drug laboratory.

The call for the construction of a drug crime laboratory here has resurfaced with the holding of the two Chinese nationals at the Mactan Cebu International Airport last week for bringing in three kilos of white powdery substance from Hong Kong.

Initial screening revealed that the substance was ephedrine, an ingredient in producing the illegal drug, methamphetamine hydrochorise or shabu. Ephedrine has also been declared under the revised Dangerous Drugs Act of the Philippines as an illegal drug.