Palace says Sara’s info chief isn’t drug suspect

Jefry Tupas. Image from Twitter

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Thursday said the former chief information officer of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte was not among those arrested during a drug bust at a beach resort in Davao de Oro province because she wasn’t a suspect in the first place.

Jefry Tupas, who was fired as she offered to resign on Sunday, a day after the raid, was not a “key personality” in the operation led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) at the resort in Mabini town, said presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

The authorities, including agents from the National Bureau of Investigation, and the local police arrested 17 people in the beach party and seized P1.56 million worth of illegal drugs, including ecstasy and LSD.

“The PDEA confirmed that the former information officer of Mayor Sara was not in the search warrant or arrest warrant issued for the buy-bust operation. She was not really identified as a key personality in the raid,” Roque said in a press briefing.

Special treatment?

He was reacting to statements that Tupas was given special treatment and was allowed to leave the resort during the raid because she was close to Duterte.

There was also no basis to say that Tupas was treated differently from poor alleged drug offenders who were killed in other antidrug operations carried out by state forces in the President’s brutal drug war, Roque said.

The other people arrested during the PDEA raid had questioned Tupas’ release.

But Tupas, in an earlier message to the Inquirer, said she and her boyfriend and another friend only had dinner at the resort and left an hour before the raid.

But in an interview with the local online news outlet Newsline Philippines, the suspects now detained at the NBI regional office in Davao City disputed her statement.

One of the detainees said Tupas—who also worked as correspondent for the Inquirer from 2003 to 2015—approached the police and introduced herself as a staff member of the mayor and asked what was happening.

‘Docs’ among them

A Newsline report on Wednesday night said that authorities found no contrabands from 12 of 17 suspects.

Several expressed dismay over the drug charges against them.

The suspects recalled that a few of the 50 people at the exclusive beach party were doctors.

They also said that about eight partygoers were women but only one was arrested.

Of the 17 arrested, they said that 12 were “visitors” and that authorities did not find any contraband on them after being frisked.

The five others, they said, were brought to a room where the illicit drugs were allegedly discovered by the raiders.

“We were only told to (cooperate). But we were surprised later when a table was set up in front of us and (the seized drugs) were brought there and they took pictures of us,” one detainee complained.

“We wondered where those came from as they were not able to get anything from us. Those were not ours. Where did they get them?” the detainee added.

Another detainee expressed confidence that the supposed evidence against them could be refuted by the other people who were in the cottages near the party venue and saw what happened.

The PDEA has said that the raid was a buy-bust operation against Revsan Elizalde who celebrated his birthday with the “by invitation only” beach party.

The PDEA said four of the suspects were Elizalde’s cohorts and the 12 others were said to have been in a drug session.

On Tuesday, the 17 were charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act at the provincial prosecutor’s office in Nabunturan, the provincial capital. —WITH A REPORT FROM RYAN D. ROSAURO