「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

By Ella Dionisio

The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said the fatal misencounter that happened in Quezon City last Wednesday evening which resulted in the death of four people will not affect their anti-illegal drug operations.

In a press briefing, Gen Debold Sinas said the incident was unexpected but their coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will continue.

“We already issued our directive to both our people… this should not affect their operations. Their trust and confidence (with each other) should remain. What happened in Ever Gotesco is just an unfortunate incident and should not be a factor in our coordination,” he said.

“We are very saddened by the incident, but our drug operation will continue… We will not let up just because of one incident. That’s why we are investigating so that our people will know that whoever is at fault should be responsible,” he added.

Two police officers, one PDEA and one informant died while four were injured in a shooting incident that happened outside a fast food chain.

Sinas said all evidence and people concerned with the incident are at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Sinas said PNP and PDEA will file a case against whoever is found responsible for the incident.

“We will not cover here or hide anything,” he said.

“What is being agreed between PNP and PDEA is that whoever is responsible will face charges,” he said.

Asked on who is the target of their buy bust, Sinas refused to reveal their identities.

“We want to protect their identity also… We are still gathering if the target (of both agencies) is the same,” he said.

PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva said both law enforcers are conducting separate legitimate operations and coordination was made.

Villanueva said the two teams started in different locations and just happened to end in the location where the shooting happened.

“We have a good working relationship locally all throughout the Philippines… It’s a separate operation and just happened in the same place,” he said.

“Right now we cannot tell whether both of us or one of us is doing the buy bust and one of us is not doing the same buy bust… We don’t have the evidence that will prove right now… We will (examine by) forensic all cellphones then we can give you what transpired,” he said.

He said operations that were not coordinated can be considered as illegal.

Villanueva said any lapses in the incident will be changed.

“All parts of the investigation will be taken… So that we will see what happened so that we can correct it,” Villanueva said.

With the creation of the Board of Inquiry (BOI), the PDEA chief assured integrity with board so both parties will accept the outcome and who should be responsible.

“We will do whatever is needed to come up on what is the truth on what happened and we will help in the joint board if inquiry to give justice on the death of three law enforcers who are just doing their job,” he said.

“As of now we cannot say how it happened because we are collecting all pieces of evidence needed to find how it started and how it escalated… We are careful because we want to know what really happened,” he said.

Villanueva said there is also a possibility they were set up by drug syndicates .

“It can be an angle because it happened before,” Villanueva said.

“We were played before (by drug syndicates) but we cannot say for now since we are still investigating. It’s early to say that we are played but it is possible,” he said.

Since he believed that drug syndicates may be watching them right now, Villanueva said the PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP) must strengthen their relationship.

“PDEA and PNP should not fight because of the incident… The relationship should be strengthened because we don’t know if the drug syndicates just want us to argue and we will not let that happen,” he said.

Both PNP and PDEA also welcome the investigation that will be conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

They also assured assistance to the family of law enforcers who died during the incident. DMS