PDEA targets cops, soldiers in drug trade

Without mentioning names, President Arroyo revealed yesterday that some active and retired police and military officials are in cahoots with drug syndicates.

Speaking at ceremonies marking the "Unang Sigaw ng Nueva Ecija" in San Isidro town, Mrs. Arroyo said she got the information from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

"The key here is to remove active and retired police and military officers who are involved in drugs," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson, head of the Central Luzon Peace and Order Council, to look into the involvement of certain police and military officials in the illegal drug trade.

"And I expect Governor Joson … will help in this regard," she said. "I want to tell (Joson) that our target is drug syndicates because they are also syndicates of heinous crimes."

Mrs. Arroyo said a law enforcement unit must each be assigned to identify trans-national and local illegal drug rings and the PDEA should dismantle these syndicates.

The PDEA, which held an anti-narcotics workshop at Camp Crame last Saturday, submitted to Mrs. Arroyo its "order of battle" which contained the names of 11 suspected transnational drug traffickers and 215 illegal drug syndicates operating in the country.

Accompanying Mrs. Arroyo in Nueva Ecija were Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Brig. Gen. Alberto Braganza, commander of Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, and other military officials.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Barbers chided yesterday Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido, PDEA director general, for revealing "too much information" to the public about police operations against drug syndicates.

"If the PDEA has a list of suspected drug dealers, they should not reveal too many details as to where the scheduled raids would be," Barbers said in a statement.

"It is like advising the criminals that police operations against them will be made at a given date and thus, allowing them to easily find a way to slip from authorities," he said.

Barbers, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said the PDEA officials would not succeed in fighting drug syndicates if they don’t change "the current approach in dealing with drug traffickers." – Marichu Villanueva, Sammy Santos