Senate probe on PNP-PDEA 'misencounter' deferred indefinitely as COVID-19 hits agency heads
The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs has decided to postpone anew its investigation into the fatal misencounter between operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, chair of the said committee, said he has deemed it fit to indefinitely suspend the Senate probe, after PNP Chief Gen. Debold Sinas and PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva both tested positive for COVID-19.
Dela Rosa also noted that all other invited resource persons for Monday, March 15 probe, from both camps have been exposed to their principal and further advised to undergo quarantine.
“One of the close contacts of Gen. Sinas and Gen. (Vicente) Danao (Jr.)…died yesterday after testing positive together with the Chief PNP,” Dela Rosa said in a statement on Sunday, March 14.
Sinas, Danao, Villanueva and other resource persons are now currently in quarantine.
“Committee hearings of this kind can be more frustrating if done virtually. Hoping for your kind understanding,” he explained.
Dela Rosa, a former PNP chief, earlier deferred his panel’s hearing after President Duterte requested Congress to give way to the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) investigation.
The Senate’s probe will take up the separate resolutions filed by Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, calling for a Senate inquiry into the Feb. 24 deadly shootout along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.
Five people, while four others were wounded in the misencounter.