‘Misencounter’ probe: 1 cop for dismissal, 10 for demotion

OPERATION GONE AWRY PDEA agents who figured in the Feb. 24, 2021, “misencounter” with a PNP team in Quezon City are forced to yield and taken into custody by the latter, in this file photo released by the National Capital Region Police Office.

An inquiry into the “misencounter” last year between police officers and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in which four men were killed has resulted in a recommendation for the dismissal of a police officer and the demotion of 10 others.

The Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS) headed by Director General Alfegar Triambulo recommended that Cpl. Alvin Borja be dismissed from the police service. Investigation showed that it was Borja who had shot and killed PDEA agent Rankin Gano and informant Untong Matalnas, Triambulo said.

The two others killed were Police Corporals Eric Elvin Garado and Lauro de Guzman.

The IAS also sought the demotion to one rank of 10 other police officers involved in the shootout, including Maj. Sandie Caparroso, the former chief of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Special Operations Unit.

Botched drug op

No sanctions were recommended for the remaining 41 police officers who went through administrative proceedings.

The resolution of the IAS on administrative cases against the erring police officers needed to be reviewed by the Discipline, Law and Order Division of the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, as well as the office of the PNP chief, General Dionardo Carlos.

PDEA has yet to comment on the IAS recommendation.

On Feb. 24, 2021, a botched drug buy- bust led to a shootout between members of the QCPD’s Special Operations Unit and of PDEA in a busy area in front of a fast-food chain on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

Senate inquiry

Each of the two law enforcement units claimed to be conducting a legitimate buy-bust operation, and accused the other of firing first.

In a Senate inquiry in May last year, the National Bureau of Investigation raised the possibility that PDEA informant Matalnas had gone rogue and pretended to sell drugs to a detainee that the QCPD was employing as an asset.

Unified coordination

The shootout that occurred in broad daylight drew severe public criticism and suspicion of a “turf war” between the PNP and PDEA, prompting the two agencies to review their respective drug-operation procedures.

Five months later, in July, the two agencies signed a memorandum of agreement prescribing unified coordination in the conduct of antidrug operations.

The agreement was aimed at “preventing any incidents of miscoordination and miscommunication and related lapses in judgment” between the two agencies that, they said, might “impede the government’s antidrug campaign.”

Criminal complaints

In September, the NBI filed criminal complaints against 12 QCPD cops and four PDEA agents at the Department of Justice.

Homicide complaints were filed against PDEA agents Khee Maricar Rodas, Jelou Satiniaman and Jeffrey Baguidudol for the killing of Garado, and against PDEA agent Romeo Asuncion for the killing of De Guzman.

The PNP and PDEA operatives are also facing charges of attempted homicide, direct assault, falsification of official documents, robbery and conniving with or consenting to evasion.

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