NORTHERN ILOILO — When police seized P14 million worth of shabu in northern Iloilo in February 2026, they didn't find it at the port. They found it in a residence, three kilometers inland from the municipal fish port where the shipment had landed hours earlier.

That pattern repeats 23 times in the province's 4th and 5th districts since 2022. The drugs travel 600 kilometers from Manila through seven major ports. At none of those ports — except Manila — is there an x-ray machine capable of scanning a vehicle.

Senator Raffy Tulfo confirmed the gap in a 2024 Senate hearing, grilling Philippine Ports Authority officials about "the absence of X-ray machines for vehicles entering Ro-Ro ships" nationwide. When PPA lawyers claimed they had "screening units," Tulfo interrupted: "Do not tell a lie... in piers and Ro-Ro ports are you sure we have X-ray machines?"

PPA's answer: "We will give you a report."

The route

A typical shipment follows the RORO highway used by fish traders daily:

1. Manila North Harbor — has Bureau of Customs x-ray
2. Batangas Port — no vehicle x-ray. PPA does "basic checks... similar to what we do in malls"
3. Calapan, Oriental Mindoro — no x-ray
4. Roxas, Mindoro — no x-ray
5. Caticlan, Aklan — no x-ray
6. Dumangas, Iloilo — no x-ray
7. Northern Iloilo municipal ports — no x-ray, no PPA presence

The task force that doesn't scan

In 2019, PPA joined the Seaport Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group 6 (SIADITG-6), promising to "safeguard the region's ports." The operations center was placed at Iloilo International Port in Lapuz.

Five years later, the task force includes eight agencies but has no scanning equipment to deploy. PDEA's national plan called for 110 new agents to monitor "13 key seaports and 1,200 private seaports nationwide" — roughly one agent per 11 ports.

The result: busts inland, not at ports

Because there is no systematic port screening, interdiction happens after the drugs leave the port:

• Sept 2023, northern Iloilo P10.88M shabu — "intercepting a drug shipment from Manila to Panay Island"
• Oct 2023 P6.8M, same corridor
• Nov 2023 P932,000
• Feb 2026 P14M, largest in the area's history

All occurred within 3 kilometers of municipal ports that lack x-ray, K9 units, or permanent PDEA presence.

COA's 2023 audit flagged PPA for "P18 million in unnecessary expenditures on office equipment" and 166 unregistered vehicles. No audit finding mentions x-ray procurement for Western Visayas.

Why it matters

Tulfo summed it up: "we need X-ray machines in piers or Ro-Ro ports so that vehicles can enter these machines before entering the ships."

Without them, the 600km route functions as an unchecked corridor. Police compensate with surveillance — the P14M case took "nearly four months" of tracking — but they are tracking shipments that have already passed through seven unmonitored ports.