Top officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will not be spared from the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) probe into the Feb. 24 “misencounter” of their operatives in Quezon City, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said on Sunday, Feb. 28.
“The NBI will go anywhere its investigation will lead it,” Guevarra stressed.
He made the assurance after President Duterte named the NBI as the sole agency which will conduct the investigation.
“We’ve seen this many times before, more recently in the case of the tapioca shipment containing shabu. That’s why the President trusts the agency,” he said.
Just last Tuesday, Feb. 23, the NBI filed a complaint against PDEA Director General Wilkins M. Villanueva, Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero and other government officials and personnel over the 2019 shipment of 171 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu, which were hidden among the shipment of tapioca starch.
The “misencounter” between operatives of the PNP and PDEA resulted in the deaths of two policemen, one PDEA agent and one PDEA informant.
Following the incident, the PNP and PDEA created a joint board of inquiry to investigate the gunfight.
Guevarra immediately directed the NBI to conduct a separate parallel investigation.
President Duterte himself held a private meeting with Villanueva and PNP chief General Debold M. Sinas to personally tell them to stop their investigation.
“The President was calm, but the concern on his face was palpable,” Guevarra recalled his meeting with the President.
“The PDEA and PNP chiefs offered no clear theories, as their investigation had barely begun,” he added.
On the other hand, the secretary said he has “requested that both the PDEA and the PNP be directed to extend their full cooperation to the NBI.”
Guevarra had said the investigation will principally look into criminal liabilities “but the NBI is not precluded from making a determination of administrative liability too.”