Senators chide drug enforcers

Senators Robert Barbers and Noli de Castro reprimanded Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director Anselmo Avenido and his men yesterday over the recent escape of a suspected Chinese drug trafficker from a detention cell at Camp Crame.

Barbers said, the escape of Henry Tan last Sunday was a slap on country’s new Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002, the amended version of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

The senator said he does not rule out the possibility there was connivance in the escape.

"And when there is connivance, money is certain to have changed hands," Barbers said after he and De Castro visited the PDEA headquarters and jail facilities at Camp Crame.

Barbers noted that the detention facility was not fit to house big-time suspected criminals.

"The Comprehensive Drugs Act is the best drug law in Asia, and look at what they have done… place a maximum security suspect in a dilapidated detention cell," he said.

Both senators said they were disappointed at how the PDEA officials and duty jail guards failed in their duties to secure the jail facilities. During the visit, the two senators ordered a re-enactment to determine the route Tan used in his escape.

Tan was able to escape last Sunday by sawing off the window grills of his detention cell without being noticed by the jail guards. He later scaled a 12-foot perimeter fence of the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters and fled to heavily-populated Barangay West Crame.

Tan shared the detention cell with two other Chinese drug suspects, Cai Hong Ze alias Edwin Chua and William Chua. They were arrested in an anti-drug operation in Zambales last November. Some 350 kilos of shabu were confiscated from the suspects.

De Castro noted how easily the grills were sawed off. He was also baffled why no fingerprints were lifted from the crime scene and why the saw used by the suspect has not been found.

Barbers said he will start a formal investigation of the incident tomorrow.

The senator said he wants to know if money changed hands in Tan’s escape.

De Castro noted during the re-enactment that it would have been difficult for Tan to get out of his cell and then scale the perimeter wall without receiving assistance from someone.

"It is hard to reach the top of the perimeter fence. If he used the tree in climbing, it should have been damaged… and it is very high so there is a possibility that somebody helped him," he said.

Barbers said he was not satisfied with Avenido’s recent move to merely relieve the jail guards who were on duty last Sunday.

He said the Senate investigation would also focus on the principle of command responsibility, from the jail guards up to the PDEA chief.

Barbers said erring officials should face the same criminal liabilities of the escaped drug suspect.

Avenido said he is willing to undergo lie detector tests with his men to find out who is really at fault.

He explained that jail guards conduct a head count of the 11 PDEA detainees every two hours. Tan’s escape was discovered at 5:30 a.m.

PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane recommended the immediate transfer of the PDEA headquarters to the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) compound along EDSA where there are better facilities to ensure security of both the personnel and detainees.

"We have a continuing security plan. We actually have an understanding with the PDEA to vacate their present headquarters and transfer it to the former building of the Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (EIIB) on EDSA," he said.

The NCRPO headquarters will be transferred to its former headquarters in Bicutan, the PNP chief said. — With Efren Danao