PDEA gives Friday's House probe a ‘thumbs-up’
It may be short and (bitter) sweet yet Friday’s congressional probe on Iloilo’s ‘drug-situation’ opened up new opportunities, new doors for improvement. Or so it would be for Iloilo First District Representative Janette Garin and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) here.
The lady solon was among the seven present during the afternoon marathon-hearing conducted by the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs. The main agenda - an inquiry made in aid of legislation on Iloilo’s now infamous drug case dubbed “Balasan Boys” controversy and handling of the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutors Office. At the close of the House probe, the proceedings indeed turned into a grilling session for government prosecutors and cops invited as resource persons.
Principal proponent of the committee probe was Fifth District Representative Niel Tupas Jr. who at one point, had his moment to ask an interesting question. Tupas Jr. was determined to get his answer from government prosecutors once tasked on yet another drug case eventually withdrawn as per Resolution penned by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
At least twice Tupas Jr. insisted on knowing the “feelings” of the prosecutor, personal feelings that is, on Secretary Gonzalez’s move. The prosecutor was upfront with his reply – he knows he was and is duty-bound to obey the order of his superior, Justice Secretary Gonzalez, which appeared legal and regular.
Yet the “feelings” really?
“Disappointed… disappointed your Honor,” came the eventual reply quickly followed by an emphatic stress that again, the personal feeling-reply was not in any way meant to openly go against a Department of Justice Resolution.
For Representative Garin, the House probe in its entirety opened realizations that government prosecution starting off from police operations need more legal assistance.
“Judging from the accounts of our invited resource persons from the police and the PDEA, it is evident that there is an immediate need to further empower them legally. The present set-up does not provide our police enough legal assistance from the very day they did their police operations to the actual preparation of complaints and cases to be pursued. So what happens is that along the way the complaints and cases are either downgraded or upgraded wrongly thus leading to the failure of prosecution. This is one area where I would want to introduce amendments to the law and have a review on the responsiveness of our current laws to the current needs of our police in general, the PDEA in particular and the community,” Garin said in a The News Today (TNT) interview.
Meantime, it’s all thumbs-up for PDEA’s chief legal counsel, lawyer Ronnie Delicana. With PDEA top national and regional officials present, Delicana told TNT that over-all assessment of the agency showed optimism on Friday’s congressional probe.
“We’re happy… at least now Congress knows the real drug situation here in Iloilo,” he said.
To note, Delicana in an earlier TNT interview said that foremost in PDEA’s intent was to manifest amendments on the nation’s anti-illegal drug laws.
Delicana similarly shared the sentiments of Garin saying evident now is the need to arm the PDEA with “real prosecutorial powers.”
“We cannot be mere complainants nor witnesses anymore..we have to be involved up to the very end if we are to win the war against illegal drugs,” Delicana said.
The all-star guestlist Friday included PDEA Director-General, Senior Undersecretary Dionisio Santiago, PDEA Western Visayas acting regional director, Police Superintendent Roybel Sanchez, region’s top cop Police Chief Superintendent Ricardo dela Paz, Iloilo mayors Restituto Mosqueda of Estancia, Raul Tupas of Barotac Viejo and Felomino Ganzon of Balasan. From the government prosecutors’ side came Provincial Prosecutor Bernabe Dusaban, Regional State Prosecutor Domingo Laurea and 4th Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Domingo Casiple Jr. and Recaflor Gentugaya-Obsequio.