10 of 29 cops wanted for ‘staged’ drug bust taken into police custody
Ten out of 29 police officers wanted for their involvement in a “staged” drug bust in 2023 are already in custody, the Philippine National Police said on Thursday.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo did not identify those under PNP custody, but she said one voluntarily surrendered while others were detained at police stations in Pasay City, Batangas and Pangasinan.
Of the 10, Fajardo said, two were already retired, while eight were in active service. Four of them are in the custody of the Criminal Investigation
and Detection Group while one was with the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group.
A Manila court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of the 29 police officers who were found to be involved in an operation against Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo in October 2022 that led to his arrest and the seizure of P6.7 billion worth of crystal meth or “shabu.”
Mayo, who was dismissed from the police service in 2023, has been in custody since his arrest and is currently under trial with coaccused Ney Atadero. But Mayo was also included in the DOJ indictment of the 29 police officers.
The police officers were charged at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 44 with violating Section 92 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which deals with delays in or the bungling of drug cases.
Section 92 penalizes government officers or employees who are found to be lax, neglectful or deliberately sabotage the prosecution of drug cases with imprisonment ranging from 12 years to 20 years.
Prosecutors charged that the police officers falsely reported that Mayo was arrested on Oct. 9, 2022 when he was already in their custody the day before and was moved between locations without documentation.
According to the National Police Commission (Napolcom), evidence showed attempts by the police to cover up irregularities in Mayo’s arrest and that some of the seized drugs were allegedly given as “rewards” for informants.
The indictment of the policemen prompted Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla to order on Monday an investigation into drug-related operations going back to 2016.
Grand conspiracy
Remulla said he suspected a “grand conspiracy” to conceal criminal activities within the PNP.
“This is my personal opinion—that there appears to be a grand conspiracy to conceal a criminal enterprise within the PNP,” Remulla told journalists at a Malacañang briefing.
He surmised that such activities were due to the reward system instituted by the PNP in 2016, as claimed by retired Police Col. Royina Garma during a congressional hearing last October.
Garma told lawmakers that former President Rodrigo Duterte had offered cash rewards for every drug suspect killed during his administration’s war on drugs.
Shortly after Remulla assumed office in October, his brother, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, also ordered the creation of a task force to investigate extra-judicial killings under the Duterte administration.
