Police Major-Gen Eliseo DC Cruz.- Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
MANILA, April 16 (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): Forty-nine police officers were found liable for the alleged cover-up of irregularities committed by anti-drug operatives of the Philippine National Police in connection with the seizure of 990 kilogrammes of crystal meth (“shabu”) worth Pesos 6.7 billion and the attempted pilfering of some of the confiscated drugs in October last year.
In a memorandum from the Special Investigation Task Group 990 (SITG 990) dated April 13, the 49 members of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) were “found to have committed criminal and administrative liabilities.” They were directed to surrender their firearms.
The memo was signed by Police Maj. Gen. Eliseo Cruz, director of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, and the head of the SITG 990.
Cruz did not say how the task group arrived at its findings but said that he would elaborate on them at a press conference set for today.
“There we will lay down what the SITG have found out, our recommendations, and other things that we will do,” he said in a phone interview with reporters on Saturday.
The highest-ranked official cited in the memo was the DEG’s former director, Police Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo. It also named two colonels, three lieutenant colonels, one major and five lieutenants.
The rest were noncommissioned officers: two chief master sergeants; two senior master sergeants; five master sergeants; three staff sergeants; four corporals; and 21 patrolmen and women.
Of the 49 cited in the memo, Domingo and seven other senior officers, and four noncommissioned officers were mentioned earlier by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos as having been involved in the “massive cover-up attempt” during the drug raid on Oct. 8, 2022.
During a press conference at the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) main office in Quezon City on April 10, Abalos ordered the 10 officials of the PNP to go on leave to give way to an investigation by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) of the alleged irregularities committed by the anti-drug operatives during the raid on Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. (WPDLI) office in Tondo, Manila.
The company is owned by former Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., an intelligence officer of the DEG’s SOU-NCR who has since been dismissed from the service.
According to Abalos, who is ex-officio chair of the Napolcom, he ordered the inquiry because he was “disappointed” at the slow pace of SITG 990’s investigation.
Abalos showed CCTV footage taken in front of the WPLDI office where the 14 police officers were seen.
He noted that based on the video, the PNP already had custody of Mayo even before the operation, contrary to the DEG report that Mayo was arrested the next day, Oct. 9, 2022, during a hot pursuit on Quezon Bridge in Quiapo, Manila.
Uncuffed
Police officers were seen removing the handcuffs on Mayo in at least four instances before he entered the WPDLI office on the day of the raid.
Abalos said Mayo was even listed as an arresting officer in a separate drug operation on the day of the raid even though he had already been caught in a buy-bust operation earlier.
From the CCTV footage, the PNP discovered that at least two DEG officers—Rebosora and Catarata—took 42 kilos before the 990 kilos of shabu were inventoried.
The stolen shabu was recovered on Oct. 15, 2022, in an abandoned car parked along Boni Serrano Avenue in San Juan City near Camp Crame.
Rebosora and Catarata said the shabu they took was to be given as a “reward” to their informant.
In separate press conferences at Camp Crame, Domingo and Santos denied any cover-up and insisted on their innocence and the regularity of their operation. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
