Senator questions alleged police use of detainee in Quezon City drug operation
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:32 p.m.) — A lawmaker on Monday alleged that the Philippine National Police planted at least one detainee during drug operations that later resulted in misencounters between the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Speaking at Monday morning's hearing of the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, Sen. Risa Hontiveros showed a video clip supposedly showing a female detainee who admitted to working with the police during the anti-narcotics operations at a Quezon City mall parking lot, which resulted in the recent near ‘misencounter’ with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives.
The woman in the video said that she was detained on February 3, but when asked why she was able to leave her detention cell, she answered, “May trabaho po kasi kami (We have a job to do).”
“Is it a common practice of the police to use prisoners to assist them in their anti-illegal drug operations? Is this a standard operating procedure? It seems reality is stranger than fiction. The PNP leadership should investigate this serious allegation,” Hontiveros said.
To recall, separate buy-busts between the Novaliches police station drug enforcement unit and PDEA agents from the agency's Calabarzon regional office almost led to another shootout after the two stood off near a shopping mall in Barangay Greater Lagro on Friday, May 14.
Much earlier, personnel of the two bureaus figured in a shootout outside the Ever Gotesco Mall along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City in February. At least four people died as a result, though the national police still presents conflicting numbers on the death toll to this day.
Police Brig. Gen. Danilo Macerin , then Quezon City police district director, has since retired from the police service.
Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP chief, was at a Regional Peace and Order Council meeting at Negros Oriental with President Rodrigo Duterte at the time of the hearing and could not attend.
What do the PNP's rules say?
At the hearing, Police Maj. Sandy Caparoso, chief of the Quezon City Police District-District Special Operations Unit disclosed that police were going after a target identified as James Tan. They added that the target is still believed to be alive.
"Not knowing that the target persons...were accompanies by PDEA agents, [the operation] resulted in an armed encounter," the QCPD's presentation read.
According to the PNP's Revised Operational Procedures, which is a public document, "PNP units, prior to any anti-drug operations shall, as far as practicable, coordinate with the PDEA." Rule 37, which touches on the rules governing anti-illegal drug operations, reads:
In any case, the PNP anti-drug units shall coordinate/ inform the PDEA of the anti-drug operation within 24-hours from the time of the actual custody of the suspects or seizure of said drugs and substances as well as paraphernalia and transport equipment used in illegal activities involving such drugs and/or substances and shall regularly update the PDEA on the status of the cases involving the said anti-drug operation.
Despite existing protocols, PNP and PDEA leadership drew up unified guidelines for anti-drug operations immediately after the second misencounter took place. Senate lawmakers, however, were unconvinced.
"I am perplexed by the need for unified operational guidelines given that it is very clear in the [Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972] that the PNP and other agencies will coordinate with the PDEA in any drug-related activity," Sen. Imee Marcos said at the hearing.
"That is already very clear. I would like to recommend real-time monitoring given the state of technology."
Sought for comment by Philstar.com, Quezon City People's Law Enforcement Board executive director Ralph Calinisan asserted that detainees may not take part in law enforcement operations without court approval.
"The ultimate question to be asked is why was a detainee released to join an anti-drug operation. Consequently, the next logical question to be asked is who authorized it," the lawyer said in a text message.
"Without any go signal from the court, a detainee should not, as he cannot, be granted liberty to join any legitimate law enforcement operation."
'Sell-bust' angle
Police Maj. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. said in an earlier interview that a ‘sell-bust,’ in which officers pretend to be drug sellers as a way to catch drug users, may have occurred during the February incident.
The practice is illegal in the Philippines and was questioned by Hontiveros.
"If the allegations on the ‘sell-bust’ and the use of detainees during anti-narcotics operations are true, then it is alarming that our own police can freely skirt the law," she said.
"It is clear that we do not have a clean and sound drug control system. Instead of health-based or justice-based methods, it seems to immediately shoot the solution that other officials want to do. In the end, it is our own police and agents who are at a disadvantage. Our own people are dying. There needs to be a better way," the senator said.
— with reports from Bella Perez-Rubio
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