The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Bohol will finally have a new headquarters after almost a decade of holding office in a cramped and ill-equipped facility along K of C Drive in Tagbilaran City.
PDEA Deputy Director for Operations Ruel Lasala, PDEA 7 Director Emerson Margate, District Engineer Francis Flores, Tagbilaran City Mayor John Geesnell Yap and PDEA provincial officer Nicolas Gomez led the groundbreaking for the new facility on Monday.
The new PDEA headquarters will be erected in Barangay Dampas in Tagbilaran City beside the new Department of Education City Division Office.
A P7.5 million budget is set to be allocated for the construction of the new office with P5 million coming from the PDEA’s head office. The rest of the fund however has yet to be raised.
The new two-story building which will have a 200 square meter floor area will be built inside a 519-sqm lot owned by the Tagbilaran City government.
It will also have a holding cell for detainees, which the current PDEA office does not have.
The PDEA has been operating out of a small office owned by the Tagbilaran government along K of C Drive since 2009.
Suspects arrested by the agency were being detained at the Bohol Provincial Police Office’s headquarters in Camp Dagohoy.
According to Lasala, the new facility will be of great help in boosting the efficacy of the agency.
The PDEA official also thanked the Tagbilaran City government for extending support to the agency. (R. Tutas)