Cop in P6.7B shabu bust ‘axed’
PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief General Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr. on Tuesday said that a police non-commissioned officer arrested in connection with a P6.7 billion shabu bust in Manila last October has been fired from the service.
The top cop said that the Police Master Sergeant’s dismissal from the police force means he will no longer receive any pension or other retirement benefits apart from facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail upon conviction by the court.
The suspect is a member of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PNP-DEG) who was arrested by his colleagues from the PNP-DEG during an anti-narcotics operation in Sta. Cruz, Manila, which led to the recovery of 990 kilograms of shabu worth P6.7 billion.
The sting led to the arrest of one civilian and the suspect policeman in separate places in Manila before PNP-DEG operatives under Brigadier Gen. Narciso D. Domingo raided a lending firm office in Sta. Cruz, Manila, where the huge volume of the so-called “poor man’s cocaine” was discovered.
The incident prompted Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” C. Abalos Jr. to call on all 3rd-Level PNP Officers to submit their courtesy resignation to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” C. Marcos Jr. on or before January 31 this year. The move was aimed at purging the force of officers with “drug links.”
A 5-Man Advisory Group has already reviewed more than half of the over 900 police generals and full-fledged colonels who tendered their courtesy resignation to President Marcos Jr. The recommendation has been forwarded to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) chaired by Abalos before its submission to the Office of the President (OP).
As of Tuesday, a PNP body investigating the record drug haul in Manila is already on its way to concluding the probe, the Journal Group learned.
Azurin had also said that Domingo is doing a “good job” in going after drug syndicates and rogues in uniform and should be commended, not replaced.
Azurin also made it clear that it was Domingo and his men who arrested the suspect cop in Manila last October. “Si Brig. Gen. Domingo nga ang nag-aresto (sa suspect). I don’t see kung bakit siya magkakaroon ng command responsibility dun,” he emphasized.
The top cop earlier said he has asked the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management’s Discipline, Law and Order Division to forward the recommendation of the PNP Internal Affairs Service to dismiss the suspect to the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management to avoid some technicalities which could be used by the accused in the future to seek reinstatement to the force.
