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The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted at least 30 cops for anti-drug violations related to the seizure of P6.7-billion worth of shabu (methamphetamine), a scandal rocking the entire Philippine National Police (PNP), which might implicate the former police chief of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“This is the first time that we have conclusively proven that PNP personnel were involved in the sale/distribution/huli-dap/and cover up. It goes from a sergeant all the way to the chief PNP,” Interior Secretary Juanito “Jonvic” Remulla told Rappler.
The indictment, dated December 10 but only made public last week, charged officials as high as former deputy chief for operation – the third highest post in the PNP – Lieutenant General Benjamin Santos Jr. and former PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) Police Brigadier General Narciso Domingo.
On Wednesday, a Manila court issued warrants against 29 cops, including Santos and Domingo, and set the bail for the police officers at P200,000 each.
Former PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin, Marcos’ first police chief, is being dragged into the mess but was not indicted. Interior Secretary Remulla said Azurin was not included in the indictment, not necessarily on merits. Remulla added that he (Azurin) was “not included in our case build-up because he was retired already when this case was brought forth.”
This has given the Marcos government a springboard to investigate the Duterte-time PNP.
“I think it was made very clear during the quad comm by the PCSO [general manager Royina] Garma that there was a reward system, that there was a corresponding value to every seizure and arrest and killing corresponding to the number of grams of kilograms accompanying the suspect. So we have to look back further into that on the mechanisms that they used,” Remulla said during a Malacañang briefing early this week.
The indictment against the 30 was for planting of evidence (section 29) and delay and bungling in the prosecution of drug cases (section 92) of Republic Act 9165.
Prosecutors dismissed the same complaints, and others for falsification and perjury, against 44 other cops, including police brigadier generals Remus Medina and Randy Peralta. Meanwhile, the panel also junked the complaints for alleged drug sale, obstruction of justice, offering false testimony, and malversation against all the cops.
The PNP seized a total of 990 kilograms of shabu worth P6.7 billion in Tondo, Manila in October 2022, where identifications, belongings, and “incriminating documents” of an active member of the police force were found.
The scandal began when policeman Rodolfo Mayo Jr. was arrested in 2022 over the issue — ironic because he was a cop under PDEG, or the group tasked to lead the anti-drug campaign. Former interior chief Benhur Abalos claimed in 2023 that police generals and other high-ranking officers were allegedly involved in the “massive attempt” to cover up Mayo’s arrest. It took nearly two years before the investigation reached this damning indictment.
What happened behind the scenes of the alleged Mayo cover-up prompted a full-force briefing in Malacañang on Monday, January 13, where Remulla said: “I must reiterate, there seems to be a grand conspiracy to conceal a criminal enterprise.”
What happened according to Napolcom
Operatives claimed that Mayo was originally arrested near Quiapo with only two kilograms of shabu. But this was a staged arrest, according to the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
After investigation, the Napolcom said that Mayo was arrested with two kilograms of shabu near Tondo, and then was taken to the Wealth and Personal Development (WPD) lending office which he owns. It’s there that the 990 kilograms of shabu was found. Fearing that the whole thing would destroy the reputation of the PNP, decisions were made that made the “slew of irregularities” pile up.
First, high-ranking officers, including the indicted Domingo and Santos, went to the WPD lending office when they learned that Mayo was arrested. What some officers did was to declare the WPD operation a buy-bust, catching the lending office’s caretaker, Ney Atadero. There was no trace of Mayo in that declaration.
“However, CCTV footage shows that no buy-bust operation was conducted at 4:45 pm at the WPD lending office,” said the newly-appointed Napolcom vice chairperson and executive officer Ricardo Bernabe.
For the second cover-up, Mayo’s boss, Police Lieutenant Arnulfo Ibañez, allegedly induced Domingo and another officer to release him so he could lead them to a much bigger warehouse in Pasig City. This is where there was an attempt to drag Azurin, because according to the Napolcom, Mayo’s release was cleared by Azurin himself. Azurin has denied it.
The Pasig City operation pushed through, but it only turned out to be a “mere service of a warrant of arrest” and not to bust a bigger lab. To cover their mess, some cops staged the hot pursuit operation against Mayo, which took place along Quezon Boulevard the following day, on October 9. This was also to cover up his earlier and later release, according to Napolcom.
The other generals dragged into this mess have denied the allegations.
Note: This visualization was first used in the story, “DIAGRAM: Who are the cops being questioned in P6.7-B shabu mess?” published at the height of the legislative hearings on the controversy in 2023.
Prosecutors’ findings
After evaluating the affidavits and evidence, the prosecutors said they found that Atadero and Mayo’s arrest were only “simulated arrests.”
Mayo was already arrested along Bambang Street near Tondo for alleged possession of two kilograms of shabu, according to prosecutors. They added that both Mayo and Atadero had actually been arrested by the cops on the same day before their “fake arrests,” and the cops were already aware of the “voluminous quantities of shabu inside WPD lending” office.
The prosecutors also believe that there was a plan to free Mayo by releasing him to join the Pasig City operation. The panel also upheld Napolcom’s findings that the police simulated the arrest of Mayo and Atadero later “obviously with the objective of curing the botched huge drug operation against Mayo in Bambang and against Atadero at WPD Lending.”
Apart from the bungled charge, the prosecutors filed the planting of evidence complaint due to the staged arrest of Mayo on Quezon Bridge on October 9, 2022, since the cops allegedly planted shabu on the former cop. Meanwhile, the prosecution did not push for the misappropriation case since there was no evidence proving that the bags handled by the cops in question really contained illegal drugs.
Can of worms
The scandal also taints the government of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Remulla said they have a “theory” that cops in the Mayo operation faked arrests, and divided the shabu into different packs, so they could report in installment and maximize the rewards. Remulla said they will investigate the entire PNP all the way back to 2016 to 2022, or basically the Duterte years.
Even during Duterte’s time, there were efforts to unveil the so-called involvement of some “ninja cops” in the illegal drug trade, but no major case nor allegation has flourished. Things somewhat changed when the fallout between Marcos and Duterte happened, which paved the way for the House of Representatives’ quad committee probe into the drug war, including the illegal drug trade and even Philippine offshore gaming operators.
The same mega-panel found that Duterte and his allies were liable for crimes against humanity over the drug war, and recommended a deeper probe into Davao City lawmaker Paolo Duterte’s alleged drug ties. Former senator Antonio Trillanes, the Dutertes’ adversary, also filed a drug smuggling complaint against the younger Duterte and Mans Carpio, son-in-law of the former president Duterte.
But if the Napolcom’s findings were as important, why was there a delay?
“When then-[secretary] Benhur [Abalos] called for charges to be filed in the Napolcom, the [then]-vice chair and executive officer Alberto Bernardo, sat on the case and delayed any action. Bernardo is by the way a Duterte appointee. He was replaced by VCEO Bernabe last November. Immediately things started happening,” Remulla explained to Rappler.
Litmus test
Like the quad committee hearings and the impending filing of complaints against Duterte and allies, the multi-billion shabu mess is a litmus test for the Marcos administration.
“Hopefully, it will result in a police force that values integrity and fidelity to duty above all else,” Remulla said.
Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon said the cases were already filed with the Manila Regional Trial Court.
All eyes are now on the court as this case would not only decide the fate of the cops involved, but would also dictate the tone of the Marcos administration’s offense against police criminality.
Many presidents and interior chiefs tried to get rid of allegedly corrupt cops in the police service, but everyone has failed so far. Should the cases persist, it should not be the end, but rather the start of more probes, filing of cases, and then conviction of PNP personnel involved in the illegal drug trade.
“As far as the Department of Justice is concerned, with the two cases that were recently filed, we are confident that we will be able to muster a conviction for all those charged,” Fadullon said.
Most importantly, this current case and future complaints against cops in the illegal drug trade should not suffer the same fate as the past drug war-related convictions, where less than five guilty rulings against cops had been used by the government to claim that there has been so-called accountability in the drug war. – Rappler.com
