PDEA and PNP: From mistrust to mis-encounter
The mis-encounter that resulted in the death of two cops and a PDEA member and his informant, was certainly not the first between two organizations with interlocking operations, targets and hobbled by simmering mistrust.
The deadly shootout Wednesday between policemen in Quezon City and operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) near a fast-food outlet along Commonwealth Avenue cannot be expected to be the last.
The “mis-encounter” that resulted in the death of two cops and a PDEA member and his informant, was certainly not the first between two organizations with interlocking operations, targets and hobbled by simmering mistrust.
Documents gathered by Daily Tribune, as well as exclusive interviews with PDEA and Philippine National Police (PNP) sources, showed PDEA and Manila Police District (MPD) operatives also came within a hair-trigger of a deadly gunplay on 14 September last year.
In that incident, MPD Moriones precinct policemen tried to arrest a certain alias “Balong” after he was tagged as a big-time narcotics pusher by a suspect previously arrested by the policemen on 8 September.
With guns drawn, the Manila policemen swooped down on “Balong” and his “buyer-companion” inside their vehicle in the parking lot of another fast-food restaurant along Zaragosa Street in Tondo.
It was supposed to be a routine buy-bust operation by the Moriones cops, but “Balong” and his companion turned out to be members of PDEA.
The police narrated that they were quickly surrounded by heavily armed men, who later identified themselves as the PDEA backup of “Balong”.
The standoff lasted like an eternity, according to sources, with the PDEA and Manila policemen training their guns at one another like a scene in a cowboy movie.
A cop earlier shot at the tires of their suspects’ vehicle to stop them from “fleeing” and “running them over.”
The police said the buy-bust operation was properly coordinated with PDEA and was covered by an approved pre-operations plan. It was touched off by “Balong” contacting a man, Christopher Mariano, to buy shabu worth P1 million.
Unknown to “Balong,” Mariano was already in the custody of the MPD cops after he and four others were arrested in a drug sting on 8 September 2020 in Barangay Tuktukan, Taguig City.
PDEA’s operation involving “Balong” was also covered by a pre-ops plan and authority to operate that was supposed to transpire on 13 September, but was moved a day later with the meetup by Mariano’s associate with “Balong” in that restaurant.
It was a case of the MPD and PDEA both claiming to be undertaking legitimate operations that, notwithstanding the supposed coordination made by the cops, nearly ended in a fatal mis-encounter.
PDEA promptly arrested the MPD asset and charged her with drug pushing on 16 September before the Manila City
Prosecutor’s Office.
A post-operation affidavit submitted by a PDEA agent to prosecutors showed the PDEA also intended to arrest the Moriones policemen along with their asset, but that they were outnumbered by the cops.
Immediately after the incident, officials of PDEA and the MPD met and the latter agreed to replace the damaged tires and mag wheels of the Toyota Fortuner used by “Balong.”
MPD sources said there’s now “massive demoralization” within their ranks after the Moriones policemen were relieved reportedly because PDEA will also file charges against them.
The Moriones cops were reinstated last week in the MPD now wracked by the abduction of its two members recently.
“Anyone can be tagged a ninja cop these days even if you and your unit are undertaking legitimate operations,” a policeman detailed in Quezon City who requested anonymity told Daily Tribune.
Before the Commonwealth shootout between PDEA and members of the Quezon City Police Department, the President asked the PDEA to be on the lookout for ex-PDEA members who have become members of drug syndicates.
As early as September of 2019, then National Capital Region Police Office chief Guillermo Eleazar already reached out to the PDEA leadership to iron out operational kinks between policemen and PDEA agents.
At the time, reports on the so-called “ninja cops” or policemen selling drugs that had been confiscated abound, a suspicion also leveled at rogue PDEA agents.