PNP: No recycling of seized drugs

After former police agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong called Camp Crame the center of the illegal drug trade, the Philippine National Police (PNP) assured the public yesterday that seized drugs are not being recycled at its headquarters in Quezon City.

A tour of the PNP Crime Laboratory yesterday showed more than a ton of seized shabu and other prohibited drugs rotting in the absence of court orders for their destruction.

Deputy Director General Rex Piad, chief of the PNP directorial staff, said seized drugs used as evidence are kept under 24-hour guard in a fool-proof vault with an alarm system at the PNP Crime Laboratory.

"Within a day after illegal drugs are confiscated, the police officers concerned turn them over to the PNP Crime Laboratory where these pieces of evidence are kept," Piad told reporters after he took them on an inspection tour of the crime laboratory.

"The chief of the crime lab is responsible for these drugs while under his care, while the court is responsible for their disposition, commonly through incineration," he said.

Agreeing with Piad, PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza welcomed yesterday a National Police Commission (Napolcom) investigation on Ong’s allegations.

Speaking at Napolcom’s anniversary celebration, Mendoza said the PNP will conduct its own investigation to determine if any transactions involving illegal drugs are taking place at their headquarters.

"We are evaluating if there are any drug lords inside Crame," he said. "That’s a wake-up call for us. When it comes to illegal drugs, we have no mercy."

Piad said that once they receive a court order, the drugs are taken to the San Lazaro Hospital crematorium in Tondo, Manila and burned in the presence of officials of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the PNP, as well as reporters and photojournalists.

"We have to wait for a court order to destroy them," he said.

Piad said chemists from the NBI, PNP and DDB are continuously checking drugs kept as evidence in crime laboratories to determine if they have been swapped for fakes before these are destroyed.

Chief Superintendent Marlowe Pedregosa, chief of the PNP Crime Laboratory, said the security measures being undertaken in Camp Crame are also done in crime laboratories in police regional headquarters nationwide.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. who is also Napolcom chairman, has ordered the Napolcom’s inspection monitoring and investigation service (IMIS) to look into Ong’s allegations and report to him within 30 days.

"If there is sufficient evidence, then we’ll proceed accordingly," he said. "The Napolcom will then form a panel to hear the dismissal cases against them."

However, Lina said the Napolcom investigation does not mean that they are already accepting as "gospel truth" all of Ong’s allegations.

"The statement of one can’t stand as evidence unless it is corroborated," he said. "The Napolcom is currently fast-tracking its investigation on Ong’s allegations. In relation to this, I have asked IMIS Director Antonio Salazar to come up with his report within 30 days."

But Mendoza said there is no need to reorganize the PNP following the allegations of Ong because the police officers she had mentioned are either on floating status or dismissed from the service and sent to jail.

All those linked to drug smuggling and kidnapping will be investigated even if their alleged illegal activities were committed during the previous leadership, he added.

Meanwhile, Piad said a single anti-crime agency should be created to pinpoint responsibility in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.