MANILA - The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will be reprimanded for not showing up at the House committee inquiry into the billions worth of smuggled illegal drugs.

Following the motion of Antipolo City 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop to the Committee on Dangerous Drugs, PDEA chief Aaron Aquino will be compelled to attend the next hearing.

"May I move that a strongly worded letter be written to the head of PDEA to attend this hearing simply because that there are certain problems that have cropped up and he will be the only one who will be able to answer this simply because these statements came from his own mouth," Acop said.

Acop said that Aquino was not around even in the hearing facilitated by then Speaker of the House Pantaleon Alvarez and then Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas.

"I am a member of the Committee on Illegal Drugs but I have not seen nor do I know the face of the head of PDEA," Acop said.

Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said Aquino was absent because he "already made prior very important commitments out of town."

Authorities last week seized P4.3 billion worth of shabu at the port of Manila. A separate P6.8-billion shabu haul, however, may have been successfully smuggled recently and could have made its way into the streets, PDEA recently said.

• More shabu in PH: PDEA hunts for missing narcotics after P4.3-B shabu haul