ZAMBOANGA CITY?It appears that the case of the ?Alabang Boys? was not the first drug case that saw the intervention of the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Senior Supt. Adzhar Albani, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Mindanao, on Friday said the DoJ also intervened in the case of Lucky Ong, one of two Chinese nationals arrested here in connection with the raid on a shabu laboratory last year.

Ong was released in November when Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez ordered his name removed from the charge sheet, according to Albani.

Ong?s purported associates, Weng Li Yang, Rudyard Payton, Israel Dancel and Edgar Rico, remained behind bars.

Contacted for comment in Manila, Gonzalez said he could not remember a drug case concerning Lucky Ong.

?I don?t know anything about that,? he said on the phone, but admitted that on occasion he reversed the findings of the prosecution.

?If the prosecution is wrong, then I will reverse [the recommendation],? Gonzalez said.

As for the merits of the Ong case, he said: ?I don?t remember it.?

Gonzalez said he would discuss the case with PDEA officials and that he would invite Albani to his office.

?Why did he not complain before? We can discuss it on Monday,? Gonzalez said.

During the trial

Albani said he and the prosecutors were surprised by Gonzalez?s move and tried to appeal it, to no avail.

?At least in the [case of] the Alabang Boys, [PDEA agents] were still in the stage of filing appropriate charges against the suspects in court. In our case here, it was at the height of the trial when the DOJ intervened,? he said.

What was frustrating, Albani said, was that the case was ?prospering smoothly because of overwhelming evidence.?

?But when we were about to conclude the case, the secretary of justice reversed the prosecutors? decision and exonerated Ong,? he said.

Gonzalez did not agree with the findings of Western Mindanao prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron, according to Albani.

?That was what happened,? he said, adding that they tried but failed to file a motion for reconsideration and opposition in court.

?We were all shocked when Ong was freed,? Albani said.

Collaboration needed

In Manila, Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Verzosa called for stronger collaboration among law enforcers, state lawyers and the community for the successful prosecution of drug cases.

Verzosa issued the call in the course of relating to the difficulties that the PDEA usually faced in bringing drug suspects to justice.

He said closer collaboration among the agencies involved in the fight against illegal drugs would show the government?s will to stamp out the drug menace.

The PNP has anti-illegal-drugs task forces at station, provincial and regional levels undertaking operations to sniff out drug pushers and users.

?In the prosecution and investigation of drug cases, we really find hardships, problems pertaining to the presentation of witnesses and evidence. We have to develop closer relationships between investigators, operatives, prosecutors and the witnesses,? Verzosa told reporters.

?We have to improve collaboration for the successful conduct of trial by the court of justice. This must be a collaborative effort,? he said. Reports from Julie Alipala in Zamboanga City; Kristine L. Alave and Tarra Quismundo in Manila