Police general denies cover-up in shabu case

MANILA, Philippines — There was no attempt to cover up the arrest of a former anti-narcotics officer from whose property 990 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu worth P6.7 billion were seized in October last year, one of the police officials accused of being involved in the supposed cover-up said yesterday.

At a press conference at Camp Crame, Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) director Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo justified the decision to uncuff and release former master sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr., saying it was a “tactical move” approved by Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. and former PNP deputy chief for operations Lt. Gen. Benjamin Santos Jr.

Azurin and Santos could not be reached when sought for confirmation of Domingo’s pronouncement.

In a statement, the PNP expressed support for Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos’ call on Domingo, Santos and eight other police officers to take a leave of absence or face suspension while an investigation of their alleged involvement in the cover-up of Mayo’s arrest in Manila on Oct. 8 is underway.

Domingo said he and other senior police officials present in the aftermath of the operation agreed to utilize Mayo for another operation.

He explained they were planning to use Mayo for a follow-up operation after the ex-policeman revealed there was another huge cache of illegal drugs stored in a warehouse in Pasig City.

“I got a clearance for that because it was a strategic decision made with the clearance of the TDCO (deputy chief for operations) and the Chief PNP,” Domingo said.

On Monday, Abalos presented CCTV footage showing Mayo being arrested and later being uncuffed and released. The DILG chief said this was an indication of an attempt to hide Mayo’s involvement in the seizure of nearly a ton of shabu.

Domingo said this was the strategy he was referring to – temporarily releasing Mayo so that they could seize another batch of prohibited narcotics, this time in Pasig.

Col. Julian Olonan, who heads the PDEG’s Calabarzon special operations unit and among the officials asked to go on leave, said it never crossed their mind to hide Mayo’s involvement in the illegal drug trade.

“My conscience is clear. We did nothing wrong here,” he said.

Domingo said the plan to tap Mayo for another operation did not push through after they were ordered to stand down by Azurin and secure the former police officer instead.

He surmised that somebody may have called Azurin to warn him that some police officers involved in drugs might want to have Mayo killed.

“The Chief PNP called me up and directed me to stop and instead secure Mayo,” Domingo said.

He and the other PDEG officials asked to go on leave are willing to comply with Abalos’ directive.

“We will be filing our leave of absence as directed and we will cooperate with whatever investigation,” he said.

Tearful denial

Domingo and Olonan fought back tears as they expressed frustration over being linked to a crime that they claimed they had tried to solve.

Domingo said they have already turned over all the pieces of evidence, including the CCTV footage, to the PNP special investigation task group after they were directed to inhibit from the probe on the case.

“It’s really painful. We did the necessary reporting, we let higher authorities know what really happened, and now we’re being made to appear in cahoots with the bad guys,” Domingo said in Filipino.

Olonan, for his part, said he had never imagined being investigated for a crime that he did not commit.

In a statement, the PNP said it was fully supportive of Abalos’ call and urged concerned parties to cooperate with investigators.

“We believe that such (courtesy resignation) is the most prudent thing to do by said officers to prevent them to influence the investigation at any stage,” the PNP statement read.

Azurin earlier ordered the creation of special investigation task group (SITG) 990 upon the recommendation of PDEG’s Domingo, who had reported that some of his personnel pilfered 42 kilos from the shabu stock seized from Mayo’s lending office.

“The SITG has diligently and efficiently gone over all the gathered sets of evidence in order to reach a logical conclusion,” the PNP said.

The PNP said the SITG – after holding 21 case conferences twice a week for the past months – came up with a report with recommendations, which it submitted to Azurin.

No letup

Addressing Police Regional Office XI personnel at Camp Sgt. Quintin M. Merecido Monday night, Azurin said there should be no letup in the fight against illegal drugs initiated by former president Rodrigo Duterte.

“Let’s keep on focusing on our war against drugs that was started by our president Rodrigo Roa Duterte. But this time we need to level up, wherein we need to bring awareness to everyone,” Azurin said in a speech.

He said the PNP should conduct drug awareness campaign to reduce the demand for drugs.

“We need to bring awareness to everyone – to the community, to our children, our workplace, to the different government agencies so that we’ll have a drug awareness campaign program that will help in the reduction of the demand,” Azurin said.

“As long as there’s a demand, there will be supply coming in. But, if the demand is low, the supply will eventually disappear. Illegal drugs will disappear if nobody is patronizing it,” he added.

Azurin also reminded police officers to be evidence-based in their operations against the drug trade and other illegal activities. “Our basis for this should be evidence,” Azurin said.

He also urged PNP personnel not to be discouraged by criticisms of the police’s handling of the drug war.

“We know it in ourselves if what we are doing is right, when it comes to fighting illegal drugs,” Azurin said.

The PNP chief also praised his men for their hard work in reducing the country’s crime rate. — Paolo Romero, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Diana Lhyd Suelto