Senate to hold hearings on Tuesday, March 2, on Commonwealth misencounter
(Eagle News) — Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa expressed apprehension about the recent misencounter between members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), noting that the possibility that the two agencies may have been “played” by drug syndicates.
“Yung anggulong na posibleng pinaglaruan ng sindikato, posible yan,” Sen. Dela Rosa said in an interview on Balitalakayan, NET 25’s newest news service program anchored by Weng dela Fuente-Deimoy.
“Baka mamaya they are being played by the drug syndicates, pinagsasabong sila, sila ang pinag-aaway. Ibig sabihin baka diskarte ito ng mga sindikato, ” he said of the misencounter, hoping that this would not happen again.
“Dapat they should be very discerning. Dapat bantayan nila yan,” he said and cited the handling of informants or assets as one aspect for extra vigilance.
The former PNP chief that there had been previous incidents like these, and this latest incident should already be an eye-opener.
-Proper coordination is key-
The key thing in preventing this is “proper coordination.” This would not have happened if moves had been properly coordinated, he said.
“Ang number 1 dyan ay coordination. Kung talagang properly coordinated, bakit nangyari yun. Bakit kayo nagbabarilan ng mahigit isang oras kung properly coordinated? Marami nang nangyaring ganun. Dapat hindi na maulit yan,” Dela Rosa said.
The senator also expressed his condolences to those who died in the unfortunate incident. He noted that these policemen and agents were very experienced and had handled so many sucessful anti-drug operations. Their deaths were a very big loss to the government’s anti-drug operations.
He said that the Senate will conduct a hearing on Tuesday, March 2, to see if there could be legislation that could be introduced especially with regards to proper coordination to prevent such misencounters from happening again.
Both the PNP and PDEA have formed a joint board of inquiry to investigate the incident. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was also tasked by the Department of Justice to look into the matter.
(Eagle News Service)
