MANILA, Philippines — Senators placed the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the hot seat on Wednesday for not going after the informants who told him about their “custom” of receiving 30 percent of its seized narcotics as a reward instead of money.
PDEA Director General Virgilio Moro Lazo had previously said he spoke to some of the tipsters who offered to give the agency “a job” – “They will do all the work, but they are asking for 30 percent of the actual seizures as their payment.”
READ: PDEA: Some tipsters prefer drugs as reward, not money
“I want to make it clear that their proposals were rejected outright. The PDEA wants to correct the erroneous impression that there is a PDEA policy involving the handing out of non-monetary incentives like recycled, illicit drugs. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been a prevailing practice in PDEA’s reward system,” he said during the Senate public order and dangerous drugs panel hearing.
Lazo noted that the informants termed the practice as “kalakaran” or custom.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who chairs the committee, then questioned Lazo if he had asked the informants whether they were willing to be whistleblowers to implicate those behind the illicit offers of drug rewards.
“It should be incumbent on your part being the director of PDEA to make things straight. Continue pursuing that. Make them state witnesses, so we can lodge cases against those involved in that 30 percent [custom], because that is very unacceptable,” Dela Rosa said partly in Filipino.
He then instructed Lazo to again seek an audience with the informants to ask them to stand as state witnesses, so the government can crack down on the alleged practice.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo further prodded Lazo if he at least asked who from the PDEA was involved in offering drugs as a reward for tipsters.
But Lazo said: “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to ask that question.”
Tulfo raised doubts about why Lazo failed to ask such a “simple question.” He then explained that once a new administration assumes office, some individuals often approach agency chiefs to seek continuity for their illegal practices.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t agree to it. What you did wrong was you were already before them—face-to-face, yet you didn’t at least ask who started such a custom, so we can find out?” he said.
For his part, former PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva cried foul over Lazo’s disclosure as he asserted that offering drugs instead of cash as a reward has never been a practice in his 20-year run in the agency.
Villanueva also pointed out that when he sat at the helm of PDEA, they “discouraged the use of walk-in informants” since their anti-drug operations were mostly intelligence-based.
Later asked if he implemented the 30-percent reward scheme during his time, Villanueva outrightly said no.
Meanwhile, Aaron Aquino, who served as the PDEA chief before Villanueva, said he was “more than angry” upon hearing the “hurtful [and] saddening” claim of Lazo.
“Definitely, that will not happen. With due respect to Director General Lazo, to be honest, if that happened to me, I will handcuff whoever they are. They’re shameless. They had the guts to approach a Director General to make the 30-percent offer. It doesn’t seem right,” he added.
Aquino had also sought to know the people behind the idea of floating such an offer to the PDEA Director General, including the senior drug enforcement officers who have a hand in committing the practice.
Isidro Lapeña, who was the first PDEA chief under the administration of former President Rodrigo Dutere, also stood with Villanueva as he claimed that this illicit offer was not tolerated under his watch.
“I can say with certainty we did our best, a very vigorous campaign against drugs…It has to be very vigorous, relentless, and I think we have delivered,” Lapeña said.
In the PNP too?
Lazo’s claim gained some ground when Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Brig. Gen. Romeo Caramat said the unlawful proposal of rewarding drugs to informants was also being offered to the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“The PNP never tolerated that 30 percent, but I commend Gen. Lazo for being honest because as the former [chief of the] PNP Drug Enforcement Group, I encountered that kind of offer–that 30 percent of every seized drug,” Caramat said.
He further noted that there was a “big possibility” that the reward scheme had been implemented before and is still being implemented now “because these assets won’t have the idea if there wasn’t already a practice in place.”