IAS probe into February shooting between PNP, PDEA nears completion
MANILA, Philippines — The Internal Affairs Service is completing its own investigation of the supposed "misencounter" shooting between forces of the Quezon City Police District and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in February to bolster the administrative cases filed against the personnel involved.
This came as the chief of the Philippine National Police welcomed the result of the investigation of the National Bureau of Investigation finding PNP personnel guilty of murder and robbery.
In a statement sent to reporters Tuesday, Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said that the PNP organization would ensure the cops involved would cooperate with proceedings later on.
To recall, the NBI filed criminal complaints against PNP officers and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency personnel over the botched anti-drug operation in February, where four people died after the two sides figured in a shootout.
Five police officers are facing complaints of either direct assault with physical injuries, direct assault with less serious physical injuries, direct assault, robbery, and conniving or consenting to evasion. They are:
- Police Maj. Sandie Caparroso
- Police Cpl. Paul Christian Zacarias Gandeza
- Police Lt. Honey Besas
- Police Cpl. Christopher Alvarez
- Police Lt. Ronnie Ereño
Eight cops were also named as respondents over gunshot wounds sustained by two PDEA agents.
Eleazar said that all PNP personnel involved are fully accounted for and would be made available should the Department of Justice require their participation with regard to the findings submitted by the NBI.
"This also paved the way for the identification of the gray areas in the coordination protocol and subsequent outlining of improvements and institutionalization of measures to prevent [a] repeat of the incident," he said of the misencounter incident, which he described as "tragic."
"This was the first time in almost two decades of the history of drug enforcement in the country that proper coordination and clear-cut policy were finally established."
Incidentally, though, another "near-misencounter" took place in mid-May when 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 sides stood off near a shopping mall in Brgy. Greater Lagro.
READ: Senator questions alleged police use of detainee in Quezon City drug operation | QCPD, PDEA figure in standoff
At the time of the first incident, retired Police Gen. Debold Sinas, then PNP chief, and PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva asserted that there was coordination between their personnel. Metro Manila police leadership also asserted the drug bust was a legitimate operation.
After both incidents, PNP and PDEA leadership sought to craft guidelines to improve coordination, collaboration, and cooperation of PNP and PDEA operating units "to avoid previous incidents of miscommunication and misunderstanding during anti-illegal drugs operations."
Last year, military personnel were shot dead by police officers in Jolo, Sulu. The incident, which police initially described as a "misencounter", led to murder and planting of evidence charges against the cops involved after an investigation by the NBI.
In 2018, soldiers mistakenly killed six police officers and wounded nine others whom they thought were communist guerrillas operating in the hinterlands of Sta. Rita in Samar province.
"We have the same common enemies in this aggressive campaign — the illegal drugs syndicates which continue to threaten the youth, the Filipino people and our nation. It is only fitting that these illegal drug syndicates continue to focus our attention," Eleazar said.
— with reports from Kristine Joy Patag
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