Escort cops to be probed in PDEA agents’ ambush

The police officers who were in a convoy escorting the five Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) personnel killed in an ambush in Kapai, Lanao del Sur, last Friday have been relieved and placed under investigation.

In a radio interview, PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino cast doubt on the police officers whose vehicle overtook the PDEA agents’ vans and disappeared into the distance minutes before the attack, as attested to by the two survivors — a PDEA agent and a police officer from the nearby Tagoloan town.

In a press conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Monday, Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde confirmed that “four or five” police officers had been relieved for leaving behind the PDEA agents, “although the regional director could not say if the police left the agents intentionally.” —Jaymee T. Gamil