Duterte orders PNP, other agencies to leave drug operations to PDEA

President Duterte has ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other concerned agencies to leave the conduct of illegal drug-related operations to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), so as to bring order to the all-out drug war, and to pinpoint accountability.

Duterte's order also applies to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Bureau of Customs

(BOC), the Philippine Postal Office (Philpost), and other concerned agencies and task forces.

In a memorandum signed October 10, 2017, on the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, the President said:

“I hereby direct the NBI, PNP, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Bureau of Customs, Philippine Postal Office, and all other agencies or any and all ad hoc anti-drug task force, to leave to the PDEA, as sole agency, the conduct of all campaigns and operations against all those who, directly or indirectly and in whatever manner or capacity, are involved in or connected with, illegal drugs.”

Duterte ordered that all information/data received by the NBI, PNP, AFP, BOC, Philpost, and all other agencies or task forces be relayed, delivered, or brought to the attention of the PDEA for the agency's appropriate action.

The PNP was ordered to maintain police visibility as a deterrent to illegal drug activities, leaving to the PDEA the conduct of the actual operations.

Duterte's memorandum stressed that it is the PDEA's mandate to enforce the law and investigate the commission of any crime relative to the use, abuse, or trafficking of any dangerous drugs. It is mandated to arrest, apprehend, search violators, and seize the efpez fects and proceeds of the crime, and take custody over them.

This provision of RA 9165 allows the PDEA to bear firearms, the President said.

The agency is also mandated to monitor, if warranted by circumstances, and inspect all air cargo, packages, parcels, and mails in the post office in coordination with the BOC and Philpost.

But Duterte said, RA 9165 does not mean to be a diminution of the investigative powers of the NBI and PNP on all crimes as provided for in their respective organic laws.

“The law, however, specifically provides that ‘when the investigation being conducted by the NBI, PNP is found to be a violation of any provisions of the Act, the PDEA shall be the lead agency,” Duterte said. The NBI, PNP, or any task force shall immediately transfer the same to the PDEA, he added.

Over the weekend, the PDEA was able to yield illegal drugs and a list of supposed drug personalities from the house of Maasim, Sarangani, Mayor Aniceto Lo- Jr., leading to the surrender of the local chief executive.

“The raid by PDEA operatives of the rest house of the Maasim mayor, where P5 million worth of suspected shabu and a mini-shabu laboratory were seized, proves the administration’s claim that illegal drugs and corruption have captured local politics,” Malacañang noted.

In the wake of the President’s memorandum, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said his office needs the assistance of the PNP in performing its antiillegal drug tasks, as the agency has only a little more than a thousand agents in its roster.

The PNP said it will now concentrate on its anti-criminality operations and internal cleansing but vowed to provide support to PDEA as the need arises.