The dust are slowly settling and now we can clearly
understand why more than two (2) years into his presidency, Rodrigo Roa Duterte
seems to be still having a hard time stopping the proliferation of illegal
drugs in the country.
Former Philippine National Police head Ronaldo Dela Rosa was
loyal to the crusade of the President to clear the streets of illegal drugs, intelligence
reports reaching Duterte are astonishing – they are still drugs available in
the market despite his all out war against it.
Manila Times veteran journalist and former diplomat Me. Rigoberto
Tiglao gave us another major espose regarding the seemingly endless war on
illegal drugs being waged by President Duterte.
Some seized illegal drugs by the Bureau of Customs (photo credit to owner) |
In his October 10,2018 article
titled “High-ranking
Aquino anti-drug police officials themselves involved in illegal drug trade” he writes that high ranking police officials
in the Philippine National Police in the previous administration of Noynoy
Aquino are the very ones involved in the very heinous crimes that they have
sworn to uphold and accountable.
“What is astonishing is that these officials had built a reputation,
with the help of a gullible — or paid — media, of being bold crusaders who had
succeeded in apprehending ‘level-one” drug distributors and seizing huge
amounts of their illegal drugs.”
Tiglao also states that there are high ranking officials in the Bureau
of Customs (BOC) are involved with the PNP officials.
It took another set of top-secret intelligence operation to investigate
this very officials that are involved. The personalities involved are within
the agency that should be protecting the citizens of this country, they have
infiltrated high snd sensitive positions no wonder the war on illegal drugs is
taking so long
“The narcotics industry
has reached an unimaginable sphere of influence all over the country. Enormous
networks of powerful people and sophisticated modus [operandi] are utilized to
protect and continuously carry out unscrupulous activities under the guise of
legitimate law enforcement operations. “
So that our reading public can fully appreciate the expose
written by Mr. Tiglao, we are quoting it in full below said article, for
purposes of knowledge sharing, clarity and understanding.
High-ranking Aquino anti-drug police officials
themselves involved in illegal drug trade
TOP-ranked officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the Noynoy Aquino administration, who were the commanders of the PNP’s campaign against illegal drugs, were themselves involved in that heinous crime. They were getting hundreds of millions of pesos in protection money from big-time drug dealers and recycling confiscated illegal drugs to sell to the market.
What is astonishing is that these officials had built a reputation, with
the help of a gullible — or paid — media, of being bold crusaders who had
succeeded in apprehending ‘level-one” drug distributors and seizing huge
amounts of their illegal drugs.
The PNP officials, together with high-ranking Bureau of Customs
officials, managed to hold on to their positions during the successor Duterte
administration. President Duterte, however, had earlier ordered a top-secret
intelligence operation to investigate the officials, not just because of
information that he had been given, but also because of reports that despite
his intense war on drugs, there were significant amounts of drugs still
available in the market. The axe will soon be falling on these officials,
The output of that top-secret intelligence operation was a joint report
marked “secret” of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the PNP
dated September 12, 2018. The report named these PNP officials, one of whom
became a high official of the PDEA, and narrated in detail their criminal modus
operandi.
The report’s writers couldn’t help but express their shock over its
findings: “The narcotics industry has reached an unimaginable sphere of
influence all over the country. Enormous networks of powerful people and sophisticated
modus [operandi] are utilized to protect and continuously carry out
unscrupulous activities under the guise of legitimate law enforcement
operations. “
According to the report, involved in the illegal-drug trade were four
police colonels and two majors who held commanding positions in the various
anti-drug units set up by the PNP since 2003, namely the Anti-illegal Drugs
Special Operations Task Force set up in 2003, the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group
in 2015, and the PNP Drug Enforcement Group in 2017.
Same personalities
The reality is that these units merely involved “changing names and mandates,” the report noted.
“Officials appointed to these units were the same personalities,
creating a pool of agents and personnel who are mostly corrupt and had already
created networks with different drug lords across the country and abroad,” the
report claimed.
They had managed to continue their heinous activities in the past two
years, succeeding in portraying to media and to their superiors that they were
raiding the drug lords’ safehouses and seizing millions of illegal drugs.
The reality, however, is that they kept a big part of the confiscated
illegal drugs and sold them back to the drug lords or to other syndicates. The
report detailed specific instances of such “recycling,” in many cases citing
the evidence that the courts found. In one raid of an illegal drug safehouse in
January 2016, PDEA and PNP operatives claimed that they seized 26 kilograms of
shabu, but actually kept for themselves 19 kgs which they sold to their own
drug dealers.
What partly raised Duterte and his close advisers’ suspicion over the
commanders of the PNP anti-drug units was the much-publicized arrest in January
2016 of Marine Col. Ferdinand Marcelino at an illegal-drug safehouse in Manila.
It was a joint operation of the PDEA-Special Enforcement Service (SES) headed
by Col. Ismael Fajardo together with the PNP’s Anti-illegal Drugs Group.
Fajardo claimed that Marcelino, who was with a Chinese interpreter, was a
protector of a Chinese-named drug lord, Atong Lee, who owned the safehouse.
Marcelino, however, was able to prove in court that he was on an
intelligence operation against illegal drugs code-named “Oplan Moses” for the
Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
He claimed he was being framed by the SES, with the knowledge of PDEA
Chief Arturo Cacdac because “Oplan Moses” had succeeded in raiding drug
warehouses and laboratories, without informing the PDEA. Cacdac was appointed
by Aquino in October 2012 and replaced by Duterte a few days after he assumed
office.
Marine colonel framed
The Justice department under Aquino charged Marcelino with involvement in the illegal-drug trade, for which he was imprisoned for a year and a half. It was only in May 2017, after court hearings, that he was released from prison, after the Justice department withdrew its cases, cleared him of all charges, and even pointed to evidence that Marcelino was deliberately framed by the PDEA-SES.
For instance, the PDEA-SES even released to media a photo which it
claimed showed Marcelino lounging in a sofa in Lee’s place. Marcelino proved it
was a photo of him at the lobby of PNP headquarters in Camp Crame. The marine
colonel also proved that it was operatives of the PDEA-SES that had brought illegal
drugs to the safehouse.
Why would the PDEA go to such lengths to frame a Marine colonel in the
thick of an illegal drug operation if they were not protecting the drug lords
they served? Duterte’s officials concluded.
The September intelligence report was also partly the offshoot of the
hearings of Senate blue ribbon committee headed by Sen. Richard Gordon which
investigated reports of a P6.8 billion shipment of shabu that managed to pass
through the Bureau of Customs.
In that hearing, Gordon alleged that it was Customs Intelligence Officer
Jimmy Guban who facilitated the release of the two magnetic lifters that
contained the P6.8 billion shabu form Malaysia. Guban was cited for contempt
and detained for a few days at the Senate when he refused to name who the
consignee of the shipment was.
The September 2018 report alleged that Guban, a longtime Customs
intelligence officer, had been “close to Taiwan and China’s notorious (drug)
syndicate members.“
Other than narrating in detail the alleged operations of the PNP and
PDEA officials, the report provided evidence of huge unexplained wealth of the
four police officials. One of the colonels reported in his statement of assets,
liabilities and net worth (SALN) that his net worth was P8 million. The report’s
investigation showed that he and his wife owned properties — including a resort
— worth well over P100 million.
Do you think that no top official in the previous Yellow
Regime—especially Aquino’s buddy from way back, PNP head Alan Purisima — knew
about the involvement in the illegal drug syndicates of these high-ranking
officials in the PNP and in the PDEA? Was Aquino’s secretary of justice, Leila
de Lima, accused of coddling the drug lords and now incarcerated at the Bilibid
National Penitentiary, merely following the ethos of the Yellow Regime?
No wonder that after more than two years since Duterte launched his war
against illegal drugs, he has yet to vanquish it. How could he if in the six
years of the Aquino administration, the very units tasked to go after drug
syndicates were in reality members of them?
What can you say about this?
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Report from Manila Times
12 Comments
AMLAC should enter the picture to help out on the crusade of the president.
ReplyDeleteThis only prove that proliferation of drug became rampant during the time of Noynoying Administration headed by his saba queen Layla Delima. We should continue to support PRRD's war on drug!!!
ReplyDeleteDrugs ring must be stop and hang in public..President DUTERTE is in the right track of cleansing.NO to Drugs
ReplyDeleteGreat report by Mr.Tiglao. Now we know that greed is deep and entrenched on these corrupt officials and military. They should all be investigated, imprisoned (death penalty should've been better really), and all their assets repossessed and be auctioned like they do in the US.
ReplyDeleteI think the senate and congress must work hard for this. They should approved the death penalty because this will lessen the crimes in the Philippines..
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the yellowbirds are always against the President's plans and even accusing him of EJKs. There is really a mystery on the death of Kian whose killer was seen in a picture with Aling Leni while Hontiveros kept the minor witnesses with them. The very reason why the opposition is against Digong since day 1st of his term.
ReplyDeleteI agree! The yellows' role on drug proliferation gets clearer with every passing day.
DeletePresident Duterte, i am not surprised of this report. The “pabaon” system in which retiring chiefs of PNP and military is another good example of corruption. Where would “they” get hundreds of millions to give to the chief every month and also upon his retirement? Have your secret intelligence group also conducted an investigation on General Bato? Anybody reaching the “Chief” position is not exempted but rather this position is a much jucier one for them so i hope your intel will not stop at the “colonel” level only. This has been reported in the past so this system is no “strange or new thing” to the public. Where could they get the money to bribe high ranking officials? You know they cannot get that much from other illegal activities but the fat source is only from the drug market. You are the last hope of this country Mr. President and if you will not remove and terminate from service and prosecute all police or military involved in this drug problem, then who will President Duterte? They are the same people who you think are there to help you but in the actual sense is just using their position as a leverage to play the game with you. They could also be the main financiers for the plot to oust you from your presidency. So its them or you that could be removed from office, whiever comes first but all of these is just a game to protect the drug business. Please spare no one if you really dont want this drug problem to ruin the lives of our countrymen. You are our last hope Oresident Duterte.
ReplyDeleteFor the Love of Money it changes everything...The Lawmakers must help the President's crusade against illegal drugs and corrupption!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSad to say pero need natin ng harsh punishment sa mga involve sa drugs. At mas heavy penalty kapag ikaw ay law enforcer or govt offcial na involved sa drugs. Say confiscation of all the property na hindi akma sa sinasahod nya at death penalty na in effect agad pag convicted na.
ReplyDelete101% I believed what sir Tiglao exposed ! Let the president wipe out those civilians and PNP officials involve but let me me tell you these , protectors of these drug lords are also in the Congress upper and lower . Dto Tayo makakatulong sa pangulo , be careful to whom our votes goes ! Ang Iba ay garapal nating alam na malapit sila sa mga drug lords na ito ! At Ang Iba Naman ay mga pulitikong ( lokal ) involved talaga sa kalakaran ng droga . Bumoto ng nararapat na may pagpapahalaga Hindi pangsarili kundi para say lahat .
ReplyDelete