The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency held trainings on basic illegal drug detection in packages with courier service J&T Express Philippines as part of the latter’s commitment to safeguarding customers from contraband transactions and ensuring compliance with the law.
J&T Express employees from Cagayan de Oro, Davao City, Laguna, Batangas, Cebu, and Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Pampanga participated in the trainings, which involved procedures in contraband and user identification, delivery safety protocols, and the over-all process in reporting suspected illegal activities to PDEA.
The trainings were part of a memorandum of agreement signed in December last year between the national agency and the delivery service giant in response to the huge increase in e-commerce opportunities and fast expansion of J&T’s nationwide reach and offered services.
With the continuing lockdown, demand for logistics solutions surged, prompting safer practices to be implemented.
In 2020 alone, the Department of Trade and Industry recorded the registration of over 75,000 online businesses, which translated to a larger demand for delivery services as well as greater accountability in monitoring deliveries by ensuring that no illegal drugs are involved.
Prior to the PDEA trainings, J&T Express had already established its own customer protection guidelines and package safety protocols such as open checking, declaration of item value, indication of package descriptions, and the addition of sanitizing and limiting physical contact as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These standard operating procedures, which are posted as reminders in J&T’s 600 branches and online platforms, enable more efficient transactions aided by company’s website, mobile app, hotline, and social media.
As of March 2021, PDEA has seized a total of P57.81 billion worth of drugs, laboratory equipment, and controlled precursors and essential chemicals (CPECs) from various operations since 2016.