Senate to probe non-payment of rewards to informers

The Senate will investigate the government’s non-payment of an estimated P35 million in reward money to informers who played key roles in the recent busts of shabu laboratories nationwide.

Sen. Robert Barbers wants to know how this happened by instituting remedial measures for the informant reward program, for which P1 billion is available, and has called for Senate investigation of the matter, in aid of legislation.

Barbers, a former Manila police colonel and secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), chairs the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs. He authored the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Under the tougher anti-illegal drug law, information leading to successful police anti-narcotics operations obtained from both informants and operatives will be recognized and accorded high premiums in terms of monetary rewards and non-fiscal incentives.

Failure to release the reward money to deserving informants, Barbers warned, will jeopardize the government’s anti-drug campaign because the incentives for civilians or concerned citizens to volunteer information have been undermined.

Summoned to appear before Barbers at 9:30 a.m. today were Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Efren Fernandez, Anti-Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDS-SOTF) chief and Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director Anselmo Avenido and other ranking officials of government agencies involved in the reward scheme.

Under the government’s Private Eye program, informants can become instant millionaires by providing police with information that leads to successful busts of shabu laboratories.

The PDEA promised to pay informants after 90 days from each successful operation.

Barbers issued a resolution seeking the probe after informants whose tips led to successful shabu laboratory busts in San Juan town, and Tanza, Cavite and raids on drug warehouses in Horseshoe Village in Quezon City, Marina Bay Homes in Parañaque City and Lancaster Condominium in Pasay City, complained that the PDEA has still not released the reward money due them.

The PDEA owes each of them P35 million.

These big drug busts, Barbers said, "could not have been possible without the selflessness and noble efforts of informants and concerned citizens, who led the authorities to such illegal activities."

The San Juan raid happened in 2001 and the remaining drug busts took place in July this year.

President Arroyo ensured that P1 billion in seed money would be available for use in the crackdown on illegal drugs — including reward payouts under the Private Eye program.

An informant under the Private Eye program must accomplish a PDEA form on which the informant must place his or her right thumbprint. The informant is then issued a code to protect the person’s anonymity.

Besides the reward, the informant becomes a "hero in the attainment of a drug-free Philippines," according to the Private Eye form.

Aglipay earlier said the reward money for the informants is being prepared. He asked the informants to be patient and assured them that the Arroyo administration would not renege on its promise of reward.

However, Camp Crame sources said the PDEA has been stalling the release of the reward money to ensure that the informants are not police operatives trying to make money on the sly.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said PDEA wanted to grill the informants in an open conference. The informants refused to be put through this for fear that such a conference would reveal their identities and put their lives and their families at risk.

The STAR tried to reach Avenido for comment but he was unavailable.

Barbers said the reward money is necessary for reprogramming informants’ lives and their identities so they will be safe from acts of reprisal that the parties adversely affected by the drug busts may attempt.

Operatives who participate in the Private Eye program will be given monetary and non-fiscal incentives. These rewards, Barbers said, are meant to recognize the dedication to duty and unwavering sense of propriety of these law enforcers, despite drug syndicates’ persistent efforts to corrupt them.

The data gathered from the still-unpaid informants, Barbers said, also resulted in the arrest of foreign nationals and Filipinos involved in the manufacturing and distribution of shabu and the confiscation of large amounts of shabu and its raw materials.