By Joyce Pangco Pañares

President Arroyo has ordered an inter-agency task force to search high and low when it comes to combating the illegal drug trade.

Mrs. Arroyo gave the marching orders following lapses that led to the escape of suspected Chinese drug lord Anthony Ang in May last year. Ang was accused of bringing in the shipment of P5 billion worth of metamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) that was intercepted in Subic, said Vicente Sotto, chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

President Arroyo created an inter-agency task force to run after Ang and his cohorts, but appointed as members people from the same agencies being blamed for Ang’s escape.

Sotto said the task force will be composed of representatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, PASG, SBMA, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, the Philippine National Police-Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, and the National Bureau of Investigation.

“Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority admitted that there was laxity on their part that caused Ang to escape. So now, paranoia is the order of the day. The President said it is best we be paranoid when it comes to drugs,” Sotto said.

“The main trigger of the President’s anger was the fact that there was no immediate coordination when Ang’s shipment was intercepted,” Sotto said.

“When SBMA officials flagged down the vessel, they did not immediately open the cargo. It was already on the second day that agents of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group went to Subic on suspicion that the cargo might contain something else other than laptop parts,” he added.

Ang, a long-time locator at the Subic freeport zone, was even allowed by SBMA officials to visit the shipment before the arrival of the PASG agents and leave, facilitating his escape from the country.

With law enforcement agencies yet to locate Ang and his cohorts close to a year after the P5-billion shipment of shabu was intercepted, a livid President Arroyo called for the DDB meeting yesterday at the Palace to order the manhunt.

Sotto said the manhunt will include Ang’s wife, Estrella, his driver Rolando Labandelo, and alleged associates Enrique Ong, Harry Yao, and Robert Lee.

“The order of the President is intensified manhunt not only in the Philippines, but with some regional and international cooperation including the Interpol,” Sotto said, noting that only Labandelo and Lee remain in the country while the rest reportedly fled to China and Taiwan.

“The President got angry because these suspects have not been arrested. She asked for an update on their whereabouts but there was no clear answer from the different agencies.”

Sotto said the DDB would also study ways to strengthen the capability of law enforcers to detect shabu, which when vacuum packed could not be detected by dogs trained to look for drug shipments.