WHEREAS, by virtue of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (Republic Act [R.A.] No. 9165), the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was created for the efficient and effective law enforcement of all the provisions on dangerous drugs and/or precursors and essential chemicals as provided in R.A. No. 9165;

WHEREAS, pursuant to R.A. No. 9165, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) is the policy-making and strategy-formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and programs on drug prevention and control;

WHEREAS, R.A. No. 9165 provides for the abolition of the drug enforcement units of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Customs;

WHEREAS, the same Act also provides that the personnel of the abolished units shall continue to perform their task as detail service with the PDEA until such time that the PDEA is fully operational and is able to recruit a sufficient number of new personnel to do the task themselves;

WHEREAS, the PDEA, as the lead agency tasked to enforce R.A. No. 9165, is still in its transition period and still has to develop its institutional capabilities to be able to accomplish its mandated task;

WHEREAS, other agencies of the Government have trained drug enforcement personnel who can help PDEA fulfill its task;

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to pursue a forceful, intensive and unrelenting campaign against drug trafficking and the use of illegal drugs whether syndicated or street-level.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order and/or authorize:

SECTION 1. Creation of Task Forces. - The Office of the President, the PNP and other agencies which were performing drug law enforcement and prevention functions prior to the enactment of R.A. No. 9165 shall organize anti-drug task forces to support the PDEA.

SECTION 2. Supervision and Support. - The PDEA shall exercise operational supervision and provide technical support to the main task force created by the PNP. In the case of other task forces, created within the PNP or other agencies, the President of the Philippines shall determine whether the DDB or the PDEA shall exercise operational supervision.

SECTION 3. Funding. - Funds for the operation of the task forces shall be sourced from the mother agencies creating the task force and from the gross receipts of lotto operations. For this purpose, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office is hereby ordered to create a standby fund in the amount of One Billion Pesos (P1,000,000,000.00) to fund the operations of the PDEA and the task forces supporting it.

SECTION 4. Repeal. - Executive Order No. 206 dated May 15, 2003 is hereby repealed. All orders, rules, regulations and issuances, or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with this Executive Order are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SECTION 5. Effectivity. - This Executive Order shall take effect immediately upon approval.

City of Manila, JUN. 18, 2003

By the President:

(Sgd.) ALBERTO G. ROMULO
Executive Secretary