PDEA-Ilocos head sacked for releasing probe info

SAN FERNANDO, La Union – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director in the Ilocos region was relieved from her post yesterday for allegedly releasing confidential information to the media on the ongoing investigation into the shabu laboratory in Naguilian, La Union.

The STAR learned that Superintendent Jane Andres Aunzo, PDEA regional director, was summoned to the PDEA headquarters in Manila and would be replaced by a former Army official, a certain Roberto Opeña, in turnover rites at Camp Diego Silang here on Monday.

A high-ranking police official told The STAR that PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago was apparently bothered with the supposedly raw information that Aunzo had allegedly given the media because this might affect the investigation.

“I don’t know the real reason why she (Aunzo) was relieved because the order came from Gen. Santiago. They may have reasons for her relief but we would have been more prepared in the investigation into the shabu lab if she stayed longer,” said the police official, who was involved in the investigation.

Task Force Bimmotobot, headed by Chief Superintendent Romeo Gatan, earlier designated Aunzo as one of its spokesmen but later withheld her authority to do so due to the alleged release of confidential information in her media interviews.

A PDEA employee told The STAR that they received information that Aunzo had been relieved from her post as Region 1 director and was at the PDEA office in Manila attending a command conference yesterday.

The source said he has not heard of any reason for Aunzo’s relief, adding though that a PDEA regional director is normally replaced when he or she has served for two years in his or her position.

Meanwhile, Gatan said the task force’s legal team has finished the amended complaint it is filing this week.

Gatan said the amended complaint was based on the supplemental affidavit of Dante Palaganas, the arrested caretaker of the shabu lab busted in Barangay Bimmotobot, Naguilian town.

Gatan said US law enforcers have also stepped into the investigation to find out the links of the shabu lab’s operators with international syndicates.

Gatan said US authorities are scheduled to visit this week the site of the shabu lab where authorities seized six truckloads of chemicals that could produce about a trillion pesos worth of the illegal drug.