PDEA, PNP guidelines in drug ops out soon

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Philippine National Police will soon release unified guidelines that will be followed by PDEA and PNP agents to prevent “misencounters” during anti-narcotics operations, an official said yesterday.

PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva said he and PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar would be signing the guidelines.

“The operational guidelines of the PDEA and police will be finished before the end of the month so that once and for all, we can prevent misencounters,” Villanueva said in an interview on dzBB.

Last month, PDEA and PNP operatives figured in a standoff in Quezon City that almost led to a shootout.

PDEA agents reportedly ordered police officers to lay down their guns. Police from nearby stations responded to the scene for backup.

Eleazar said both the PNP and PDEA want measures in place to prevent similar events in the future.

Eleazar recently met with PDEA officials to discuss the need for better communication and coordination procedures in conducting anti-narcotics operations.

He said drug rings could be taking advantage of the gaps in operational procedures between the PNP and PDEA.

Last Feb. 24, members of the Quezon City Police District and PDEA agents were involved in a drug sting that resulted in a shootout along Commonwealth Avenue that killed three law enforcers and a PDEA informant.

Eleazar said the PNP would follow the government’s chain of command amid the investigation of government officials by the International Criminal Court over alleged extrajudicial killings.

Despite the pronouncements of President Duterte ordering state forces to kill drug suspects and quarantine violators, the PNP chief maintained that the government does not have a policy of state-sponsored killings.

“We do not tolerate that,” Eleazar said.