Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Friday raised the possibility that drug syndicates played on the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and bungled their supposed legitimate operations that led to a deadly shootout.
(Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa / Facebook page / FILE PHOTO)
Dela Rosa, however, clarified it is just one of his theories regarding the misencounter that happened Wednesday evening, Feb. 24, at the parking lot outside the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City. The incident left four people dead and several others injured.
“It could be that one of their informants, or the asset they tapped were part of a large syndicate who was answering to somebody straight from the above (syndicate) to do something to make these two groups break into a firefight,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino in an interview over Radio DZBB.
“If you notice, the supply of shabu is now very scarce, they are now selling marijuana. So that maybe part of their tactics to make sure both camps will fight each other. And this could lead to President Duterte telling both the PDEA and PNP to hold off their drug operations and fix their coordination first,” Dela Rosa pointed out.
“That would definitely give them a window of opportunity to pursue their illegal drug trade. But that’s just one of our theories,” he said.
The former PNP chief also said he is not discounting that possibility that a corrupt official of the PDEA or PNP is also involved in the illegal drug trade.
“That is also one of the things I suspect. I’ve been an operative before and I’m familiar with such operations. That even if both sides claim they were doing legitimate buy bust operations, I have suspicions that someone from, or somebody or one from each side is involved in selling,” the senator stressed.
“I really think someone is involved in selling, that’s why a firefight ensued,” he pointed out.
Nevertheless, Dela Rosa said he will wait for the PNP’s Board of Inquiry’s report to be submitted to the Senate on Tuesday, March 2, when his panel, the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, investigates the incident.
“They should be able to establish who’s who—who was supposed to be the buyer, who was supposed to be the seller,” he said.“If both were buying…but there were no exchange of goods and currencies, no transaction happened, then why was there a shootout?” he emphasized.