PNP ‘transparent’ in P9.6B drug haul

DEPARTMENT of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. has assured that the police operation resulting in the confiscation of 1,424.253 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) with an estimated value of P9.6 billion has been very transparent.

In a press conference in Camp Crame on Thursday, April 18, 2024, Abalos explained that the disparity in the weight and value of what was earlier tagged as the “biggest drug haul in the country’s history,” was only because the figures released were just early estimates.

On Monday, April 15, authorities intercepted illegal drugs weighing close to two tons at a checkpoint inspection in Alitagtag town, Batangas province. At the time, police estimated the value of the seized drugs at P13.3 billion.

“Our earlier statements were all based on estimates. The process has been very transparent, there were three witnesses and all were taking pictures from morning until the next day. The camera was on all the time. It was open to the public,” said Abalos in Tagalog.

Batangas Provincial Prosecutor Lourdes Zapanta, for her part, said they do not believe the disparity between the initial estimate and the final inventory will affect the case against arrested suspect Ajalon Michael Zarate, who was charged with violations of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, and Republic Act 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.

“I don’t know why there seems to be doubt when you can really see at the time that the inventory was still ongoing. So from the beginning, it was just really an estimate or calculation,” Zapanta said in Tagalog.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday, April 16, visited the inventory of the drug haul which was ongoing then.

In 2023, the Philippine National Police (PNP) found itself in hot water over the pilferage of over 42 kilos of shabu from an anti-illegal drugs operation in Manila in 2022 that resulted in the confiscation of 990 kilos of illegal drugs worth P6.7 billion and the arrest of a police officer.

Abalos then called on several police officers to render their courtesy resignations as the matter was being investigated.

In July 2023, Marcos accepted the resignation of 18 third-level police officers following a National Police Commission (Napolcom) recommendation on their alleged involvement in illegal drugs activities.

Follow-up

Meanwhile, PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil said investigators have put on hold a yacht in Nasugbu, Batangas believed to have been used to transport the seized illegal drugs in the country.

Marbil said they are also looking into several other vehicles and houses linked to the suspect and the illegal drug activities.

PNP Calabarzon Director Brig. Gen. Paul Kenneth Lucas said suspect, Zarate, joined the US military in 1997 and left in 2005.

He went back to the country in 2008 and established a fitness center in Metro Manila.