House panel set to probe into deadly PNP-PDEA shootout on March 1
MANILA, Philippines — A House panel is set to investigate the shootout between members of the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Monday.
House dangerous drugs committee chair Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Surigao del Norte) told ANC’s Matters of Fact that they have scheduled a probe on the shootout last Wednesday outside Ever Gotesco Mall along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City that left four dead.
“We felt there are a lot of information that are sketchy,” Barbers said Friday. “It’s too sketchy to a point that I myself, and perhaps my members, are confused as to really what happened during that night.”
Barbers stressed, however, that the goal of their investigation is not to determine who is criminally liable for the shootout, but to find out if there are laws that need to be changed to avert a similar incident.
The PNP and the PDEA have launched a joint investigation on the shootout, which police initially branded as a misencounter but later scrapped this tag.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra also said that the National Bureau of Investigation will also look into the incident.
The leadership of both law enforcement agencies asserted that they were both conducting legitimate anti-drug operations on the night of the shootout. — Xave Gregorio
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