PNP antidrug chief at center of ‘cover-up’ probe replaced

DRUGS / OCTOBER 9, 2022 Police Brigadier General Narciso Domingo, PNP Chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Benhur Abalos Jr. and Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna during press conference in Camp Crame, Quezon City about the “the biggest drug haul in the country’ – 990 kilograms and 102 grams of suspected shabu amounting to P 6.7 billion pesos in Tondo, Manila. They arrested 9 suspects including Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo who is an intel officer for the PNP Drug Enforcement Group. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Philippine National Police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. on Thursday appointed a new head of its Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) after Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos implicated high-ranking police officials in a “massive” attempt to cover up irregularities committed by its own antidrug operatives in connection with the seizure of P6.7 billion worth of crystal meth (“shabu”) in October last year.

Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo, who was forced to take a leave from his job as DEG director amid the controversy involving him and his men, was reassigned to the Office of the Chief PNP effective on Wednesday.

Domingo was replaced by Brig. Gen. Faro Antonio Olaguera, a lawyer who previously served as the director of the PNP Legal Service.

At a press conference on Monday, Abalos ordered Domingo and nine other high-ranking PNP officials to go on leave to give way to the fact-finding inquiry by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) into the alleged attempt to cover up the involvement of officers with the 990 kilos of shabu seized on Oct. 8, 2022, and the pilferage of some of the drugs.

It was said to be the PNP’s biggest drug haul.

Abalos, who is chair of the Napolcom, had shown a CCTV footage where some PNP officers were seen outside Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. (WPDLI) office in Tondo, Manila, where the shabu was recovered.

Mayo ‘arrest’

The company is owned by Police M/Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., an intelligence officer of the DEG’s Special Operations Unit-National Capital Region (SOU-NCR) who had been dismissed from service and is now undergoing trial on charges of drug trading.

Abalos noted that based on the video, the PNP already had custody of Mayo even before the operation, contrary to the DEG report that Mayo was arrested the next day, Oct. 9, 2022, during a hot pursuit on Quezon Bridge in Quiapo, Manila.

Police officers were seen removing the handcuffs on Mayo in at least four instances before he entered the WPDLI office on the day of the raid.

Abalos said Mayo was even listed as an arresting officer in a separate drug operation on the day of the raid even though he had already been caught in a buy-bust operation earlier.

“The CCTV video shows a different scenario as compared with the narration of facts as stated in the reports submitted by the PNP, including the documents attached to the case filed in court, and the testimonies given by some PNP officers during the congressional hearings in March,” Abalos said on Monday.

“It shows that there is indeed a massive attempt to cover up the arrest of [Mayo],” he said.

Mayo was the sole police officer among 10 people arrested during the Oct. 8, 2022, operation.

READ: DILG chief unveils ‘massive attempt to cover up’ dismissed cop Mayo’s arrest

Leave of absence

Domingo and Col. Julian Olonan, chief of DEG SOU 4A (Calabarzon region), were the first to file their leave of absence on Tuesday.

The PNP said on Thursday the other eight officers caught in the footage shown by Abalos had also gone on leave.

They were Lt. Gen. Benjamin Santos Jr., who was then deputy chief for operations, the third-highest official in the PNP; Lt. Col. Arnulfo Ibañez, officer in charge of DEG SOU-NCR; Lt. Col. Glenn Gonzales of Quezon City Police District; Lt. Col. Harry Lorenzo, Manila Police District, Moriones station commander; Maj. Michael Angelo Salmingo, deputy of DEG SOU-NCR; Capt. Randolph Piñon, chief of DEG SOU 4A Intelligence Section; Capt. Jonathan Sosongco, head of the DEG SOU 4A arresting team; and Lt. Ashrap Amerol, intelligence officer of DEG Intelligence and Foreign Liaison Division.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Domingo and Olonan said the decision to release Mayo during the operation was part of a “tactical move” to catch bigger personalities involved in drug trading and was approved by Azurin and Santos.

Azurin, who will be retiring when he reaches 56 years old on April 24, has been tight-lipped since Abalos’ revelations.

Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. earlier this week filed a resolution seeking a Senate inquiry into the October raid, including the details of Mayo’s reported arrest and release with the alleged approval by top PNP officials.

Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a former PNP chief and chair of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said Azurin’s testimony would be “necessary, so that we will know the level this cover-up has reached.”

PNP vows cooperation

The PNP on Wednesday said it would cooperate with the inquiry, calling it “a welcome development to once and for all clear all issues related to the biggest drug accomplishment we had in October last year.”

Days after the October operation, the PNP discovered that at least two DEG officers took 42 kilos of shabu before the 990 kilos had been inventoried. They were seen in the CCTV footage, which Domingo said he reported to Azurin.

The stolen shabu was recovered on Oct. 15, 2022, in an abandoned car parked along Boni Serrano Avenue in San Juan City near Camp Crame.

The PNP created Special Investigation Task Group 990 to investigate the pilferage.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are conducting separate inquiries into the recycling of seized illegal drugs.

‘Unspoken policy’

Citing disclosures from longtime drug informants, Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers said there was an “unspoken policy” among antidrug agencies, including the PNP, to reward tipsters with a cut of the seized narcotics amounting to between 30 percent and 70 percent of what had been recovered.

Abalos said he ordered the Napolcom investigation of the October raid and the arrest and release of Mayo because he was “disappointed” at the slow pace of PNP’s own investigation.

The Napolcom inquiry is on top of the ongoing assessment being carried out by a five-man advisory body formed by Abalos in January to evaluate the links of high-ranking PNP officials to illegal drugs.

He had called on all the 955 police generals and colonels to submit their courtesy resignations as an expression of their consent to the evaluation.

After the advisory body completes its work, the names of the police officials to be dismissed would then be submitted for another screening by the Napolcom, which would then give a list to President Marcos of the recommended resignations to be accepted.

A resignation that is accepted is an indication that the officer was found to have been involved in one way or another with illegal drugs.