Lived Experiences of Philippine National Police Drug Enforcers in the Eastern Visayas Region

Fighting illegal drugs adds a great deal of complexity to law enforcement, requiring officers to deal with a wide range of issues that go far beyond simply apprehending criminals. The research endeavor sought to investigate the experiences of Philippine National Police drug enforcers operating within the Eastern Visayas region. It set out to comprehensively examine the challenges encountered in implementing anti-illegal drug laws across six provinces and the subsequent strategies to navigate challenges. The phenomenological research design and purposive sampling were employed. The nine police drug enforcers based in Southern Leyte, Leyte, Eastern Samar, Biliran, Northern Samar, and Samar participated in the study. The research methodology predominantly relied on qualitative interviews to gather data. The findings highlighted a multitude of challenges faced by police drug enforcers, including obstacles in case development, limited resources, interpersonal variances among leaders and team members, and adverse feedback from the subjects’ relatives and the wider community. Notwithstanding these challenges, the enforcers demonstrated resilience by upholding strong work ethics, optimizing their resources for anti-illegal drug operations, fostering camaraderie, and nurturing positive relationships within the community. Furthermore, the study underscored the necessity for advocating increased budgetary allocations, enhanced mobility, and fortified armaments for anti-drug operations to safeguard the well-being and security of the enforcers. In addition, the research proposed an intervention program to strengthen the implementation of anti-illegal drug laws in the Eastern Visayas region. Keywords: Criminal justice education, Anti-illegal drug law, lived experiences