THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will conduct a separate probe into the alleged “misencounter” between agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Philippine National Police (PNP) anti-illegal drug operatives that left three people dead and several others injured on Wednesday night.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he has instructed the NBI to step in despite the creation of a joint PNP-PDEA Board of Inquiry (BOI) into the shooting at a parking lot outside the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City.
The PNP and PDEA both gave assurances on Thursday that those found responsible over the shootout will be prosecuted.
“We appeal to the public to allow us to finish the investigation,” said PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Ildebrandi Usana at a news briefing attended by top officials, including PNP chief General Debold Sinas and PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva.
“Criminal and administrative charges will be filed at the end of the investigation,” Usana added, as Sinas disclosed that a BOI and a joint investigation was being undertaken by the PNP and the PDEA.
Sinas and Villanueva did not give details into the anti-drugs operations that resulted in the death of two policemen, a PDEA agent and a civilian informant.
A policemen and three PDEA agents were also wounded.
“We cannot give anything. How it happened. How it started and how it escalated. Those are the focus of the investigation,” Villanueva said, to avoid preempting the investigation.
“It is very raw to make a statement on what happened. Which one is doing the buy-bust? We do not have the evidence [yet],” Villanueva said.
“We will not preempt the investigation. If we have the true picture, you will have it,” Sinas told reporters.
Autopsies were being conducted on the bodies; the firearms of those involved in the shootout are undergoing ballistic examinations and forensic examinations were being conducted, including on the mobile phones of the involved agents and policemen.
Senate hearing; NBI role
This developed as the head of the Senate Public Order Committee, Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, said he will also open a separate inquiry on Tuesday, March 2.
Meanwhile, Guevarra said the work by NBI is “separate and distinct from the probe to be conducted by an ad hoc joint PNP-PDEA Board of Inquiry by PNP Chief Debold Sinas.”
National Capital Regional Police Office Director Major Gen. Vicente Danao said PDEA agents and the Quezon City Police District-Drug Enforcement Unit were conducting legitimate operations when the shooting broke out.
Initial reports showed that QCPD’s District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) launched a buy-bust operation, not knowing they were dealing with PDEA’s Special Enforcement Service (SES) agents.
However, PDEA spokesman Director Derrick Carreon said their agents were also on a legitimate anti-illegal drug operation in the same area.
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