MANILA – Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) regional command in Metro Manila are mainly to blame for the dismal government performance in the prosecution of illegal drug cases, according to records of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
PDEA officials disclosed the erring policemen did not show up either during the trial of the arrested drug suspects in the lower courts or were absent during the preliminary investigation of the cases conducted by state prosecutors.
The policemen were cited as witnesses because they were part of the team that arrested the drug suspects, the PDEA said.
As a result, close to 600 of the more than 1,000 cases filed against the drug suspects were dismissed from January 2000 to October 2008, the PDEA records showed.
The PDEA disclosure followed the recent decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to take personal command of the anti-drug campaign due to the growing drug menace in the country, especially as it affects the youth.
According to the PDEA, members of the police district in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila topped the list of drug cases either dismissed or dropped, with more than 300 of the total 600 due to the absence of the policemen-witnesses.
Coming in a close second were members of the Manila Police District, the same PDEA records showed.
Reliable sources, both from the police and the courts, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, described the absence of the lawmen from the hearings as “highly suspicious,” explaining they could have been bribed either by the drug suspects themselves or their families.
“Once the cases against them are dropped, the suspects will be freed, enabling them to go back to the streets to peddle illegal drugs,” one of the sources pointed out. “Selling drugs is easy money despite the risks involved because you can always buy your way out of the predicament through unscrupulous policemen, state prosecutors and even judges.”
The issue of bribery was magnified following claims by the PDEA that the three drug suspects arrested by its agents during a buy-bust operation in Metro Manila in September 2008 allegedly offered them the equivalent of $1 million for their release.
The suspects, who allegedly supplied expensive illegal drugs like Ecstasy and cocaine, to bars and restaurants patronized by businessmen, yuppies and scions of the rich and the famous, reportedly belong to families whose “connections” went up as high as Malacanang.
When apprised of the PDEA disclosure, Deputy Director General Leopoldo Bataoil, the new chief of the PNP Metro Manila regional command, vowed to go after unscrupulous policemen who absent themselves as witnesses from court hearings or preliminary investigation of illegal drug cases.
Bataoil cited a provision in the country’s Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which penalizes policemen who fail to appear as witnesses in any proceedings involving illegal drugs.
The erring officer is liable to a jail term of from 12 years to a maximum of 20 years plus a fine of more than $10,000. This is in addition to the filing of administrative charges against him, Bataoil pointed out.
Under the same law, Bataoil added that commanders of the erring police officers also face imprisonment and a fine of $1,000, aside from the administrative penalty of dismissal for failing to ensure that their personnel are always present in such hearings.
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[...] According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), at least 600 of the more than 1,000 cases filed in court in the metropolis against suspected drug pushers were dismissed due to the failure of the arresting policemen to testify. [...]