‘Focus on Daily Tribune reporter’s attackers, not on alleged arrest warrant’

MANILA, Philippines—Amid the discovered pending arrest warrant for drugs against the Daily Tribune reporter who was shot and wounded by still unidentified suspects Sunday night, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo assailed the Eastern Police District officials for “giving emphasis on the alleged warrant of arrest instead of focusing their effort to capture and determine the motive of the suspects.”

In a statement, Robredo ordered the operatives of the DILG Office of Internal Security (DILG-OIS) to separately conduct its own probe on the beating and shooting of Fernan Angeles, a reporter assigned in the Palace beat.

This he did over his “displeasure on the way EPD probers have conducted their investigations.”

He said that it appears that some investigators from the EPD and the Pasig police office “have a different agenda in their investigations in Angeles’ case.”

He said the investigation should focus on the identities of the people who shot Angeles, what are their motives, and not Angeles’s alleged drug case.

“Based on what I have read in the papers, the twist is that Angeles might end up being arrested ahead of his assailant. What was done by the EPD and the Pasig City PNP [Philippine National Police] is that parang siya pa ngayon ang lumalabas na may kasalanan sa pangyayari,” Robredo said.

Robredo added that while Angeles may, or may not be the same person that is the subject of the arrest warrant issued by a judge for alleged involvement in drugs due to the discrepancy in the subject’s name, “that is another case that Angeles may face in court,” he said, adding that it is “immaterial at the moment.”

“The EPD and Pasig City PNP should not dwell much on that. The priority should be to capture the suspects,” he said.

EPD officials, Pasig police, allegedly involved in drug trading

In a statement, DILG said some 300 “customers” taking cheap “shabu hits” were taken into custody on February 10, 2006, in a police raid at the 2,000-square meter Mapayapa compound, which is just half-a-kilometer away from the Pasig City Hall and the headquarters of the EPD.

After the raid, DILG said that Boratong, the alleged owner of the P900-million shabu market, went into hiding for 10 months until he was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation agents in Makati City.

DILG said that during the investigation of Boratong’s case, reports surfaced that several unidentified top ranking officials of EPD and Pasig police were allegedly on Boratong’s payroll.