The end justifies the means?

THE shootout between agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) was unfortunate but not unexpected.

Pataasan ng ihi (Both sides wanted to outdo each other).

The results of the investigation into which side started the shootout that took place in a crowded area of Commonwealth Avenue are not in yet, but my instinct as a longtime police reporter tells me the policemen were in the wrong.

To say that it was a “misencounter” as each side didn’t recognize the other is making a fool of the public. The QC policemen were in uniform, and while it could be seen from the many videos and photos posted online that the PDEA men were not, some of them were at least wearing shirts emblazoned with “PDEA” on the back.

The cops should have deferred to the PDEA agents as the narcs have more right over drug cases than the police.

The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 points to PDEA as the principal agency in the war on drugs.

That law states, “The PDEA shall establish and maintain a national drug intelligence system in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, other government agencies and local government units that will assist in its apprehension of big-time drug lords.”

But the PNP, whose officials apparently are ignorant of the Dangerous Drugs Law, thinks that it’s on equal footing with PDEA in the drug war.

By the way, it seems the Quezon City police have a penchant for fighting fellow law enforcers in another agency over the issue of jurisdiction over a crime.

If memory serves, elements from the Constabulary Offshore Anti-Crime Battalion (Cosac) engaged members of the Quezon City police precinct in Galas in a gun battle that lasted for more than an hour in 1972.

The Cosac soldiers, using M-16 automatic rifles, fired at the precinct.

The reason for the shootout was over a crime suspect that some Cosac soldiers had arrested but who was snatched from them by Quezon City cops.

As long as jurisdiction over drug suspects is not well defined, there will be shootouts in the future between the police and PDEA agents.