A total of 47 personnel of the Philippine National Police-Drug Enforcement Group, including its former chief, were found to have criminal and administrative liabilities in connection with the massive cover-up of the 8 October 2022 anti-drug operation that yielded 990 kilos of shabu in Manila, a police official said on Saturday.
“There are 47 of them charged, all from PDEG, with Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo. We will present in our press conference tomorrow what we started, what we did, what we finished, our recommendation, and what we will do next,” PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management director Maj. Gen. Eliseo Cruz said in a phone interview Saturday.
Domingo was relieved from his post following the controversy in the case of the police sergeant who yielded 990 kilos of shabu worth P6.7 billion in an operation in Manila last year.
In an order signed on 12 April, Domingo was forced to go on leave based on the directive of Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos and was transferred to the Office of the Chief PNP.
Domingo was replaced by Brig. Gen. Faro Antonio Olaguera as PDEG director.
Olaguera, a member of the PNP Academy Class of 1989, used to be assigned to the PNP Legal Service.
First to comply
Domingo and the head of PDEG in Region 4A, Col. Julian Olonan, were the first to comply with Abalos’s order. Seven other PDEG officials have yet to follow suit.
Aside from Domingo and Olonan, the other police officials seen on CCTV footage taken at the scene of the drug bust were Lt. Gen. Benjamin Santos Jr., then-PNP Deputy Chief for Operations; Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo; Capt. Jonathan Sosongco, head of the PDEG SOU 4A arresting team; Lt. Col. Arnulfo Ibañez, OIC of PDEG SOU National Capital Region; Maj. Michael Angelo Salmingo, deputy of PDEG SOU NCR; Lt. Col. Glenn Gonzales of the Quezon City Police District; Lt. Ashrap Amerol, intelligence officer of PDEG Intelligence and Foreign Liaison Division; Lt. Col. Harry Lorenzo, Manila Police District Moriones Station commander; and Capt. Randolph Piñon, chief of PDEG SOU 4A Intelligence Section.
Santos said there was no attempt at a massive cover-up of the anti-drug operation.
In a press briefing in Camp Crame on Friday, Santos said he cut short the celebration of his 55th birthday on 8 October after receiving a call from PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. to proceed to the scene of the drug bust.
Santos said upon his arrival, he met with the raiding team and advised them of the requirements of inquest proceedings to ensure their compliance with the chain of custody in the inventory of the seized drugs.
“I saw that there was a vault where the drugs were kept. There were suitcases and sacks containing drugs. I checked this vault and I saw another small vault. I asked who opened the vault. Nobody responded. When I checked the small vault I saw the ID of (Master Sgt. Rodolfo) Mayo. I asked where he (Mayo) was,” he said in English and Filipino.
Another suspect
Mayo, then a police sergeant, and another suspect, Ney Atadero, were arrested during the operation.
Santos said he immediately ordered the officers to arrest Mayo, file charges against him, and subject him to an inquest.
“That is what I insisted on. I really had no idea what transpired there. I was just there to congratulate our team because this was a big drug haul, to give them a pat on the back, and to ensure that the operation went smoothly and that the cases that we would file will stand,” he said.
Santos said he then briefed Azurin that the drug haul, by his assessment, “most probably exceeded 600 kilos as initially reported, and was close to a ton.”
Santos, who has six months left in the service before retirement, said he had no means to influence the investigation as he had been relieved from his post.
“Now, I honestly don’t know whether I will go on leave or what will happen to me,” he added.
Last 10 April, Secretary Abalos showed the CCTV footage of what transpired during the operation which appeared to be different from the report made by the PNP-PDEG.
“Relying only on the CCTV footage, with no due process or further consultations, Secretary Abalos, however well-meaning he may have been, implicated my name in the purported irregular buy-bust operation. I strongly deny any involvement in whatever impropriety or infraction of law or standard operating procedures, if there were any, in the alleged cover-up in the buy-bust operation,” Santos said.
Santos denied knowing about the plan of the PDEG to use Mayo to lead them to his source of the illegal drugs, for which reason the arresting officers took the handcuffs off Mayo which made it appear that they were letting him go free.
Domingo, however, said they tried to hide the arrest of Mayo to use him to get to the source of the drugs, which he described as a “tactical move” that had been approved by Santos and Azurin.