Can a drug peddler nabbed in 2016 still in the game? Bato alerts probers

DELA ROSA LEADS HEARING ON PDEA-QCPD MISENCOUNTER: Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, presides over a public inquiry Monday, May 24, 2021, on the misencounter between members of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Special Enforcement Service and Quezon City Police District-Special Operations Unit near a mall along Commonwealth Avenue in February this year. (Photo credit/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Could a drug suspect arrested back in 2016 be the same target seller in the buy bust operation that resulted in the deadly shootout between police and anti-drug operatives last February?

This was the question posed by Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa during the investigation of the Senate public order and dangerous drugs committee into the “misencounter” between officers of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

On Feb. 24, PDEA and PNP operatives engaged in a deadly shootout along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

Both the police and PDEA insisted that they were conducting a legitimate buy-bust operation.

At one point during the hearing, Police Maj. Sandi Caparroso presented a screen recording of a video call between its informant and its target seller identified as “James Tan.”

Caparroso was the chief of the QCPD District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) at the time of the incident.

Since the audio was not available, Caparroso noted that the informant, during the video call, was showing James Tan the “show money” amounting to P1 million.

“‘Yan ang James Tan? Mukhang kamukha nung James Tan na nahuli dun sa Bicol,” said Dela Rosa, who formerly served as PNP chief. Dela Rosa is leading the inquiry as chair of the Senate committee.

(That is James Tan? He resembles the James Tan we arrested in Bicol.)

“Pa-check nga ‘yang tao na ‘yan, baka the same na tao, naglalaro pa rin hanggang ngayon. I’m not sure ha, ito duda lang,” the senator added.

(Please check that person, he could be the same person, still [in the drug trade] until now. I’m not sure, it’s just a hunch.)

A representative from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) told the senator that there was a certain James Tan arrested in Bicol on Sept. 18, 2016.

According to Dela Rosa, he arrested a James Tan in Bicol but he eventually turned him over to the NBI after then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II informed him that he was under witness protection.

“Nahuli namin ‘yun kaso tumawag si Sec. Aguirre na under witness protection program niya ‘yun. Kaya lumipad ako ng Bicol,” the senator said.

(We arrested him but [former Justice] Sec. [Vitaliano] Aguirre called and said this person is under the witness protection program. That is why I flew to Bicol.)

“Then ti-nurn over ko sa NBI,” he added.

(Then I turned him over to the NBI.)

Dela Rosa asked the NBI to check on the person he arrested in 2016 to see if he was indeed the same individual involved in the QCPD’s buy-bust operation last February.

JPV