SENATE President Vicente Sotto III, is not inclined to heed the call of Malacañang to “temporarily stop” an investigation on the still controversial anti-drug operation last February 24, 2021, near a shopping mall along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, where operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), ended up killing each other.
In a media interview over the weekend, Sotto stressed that the proposed hearing that he expects to commence this week has nothing to do with the incident but with his bill, Senate Bill No. 3, which seeks to create a new, Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority.
Presidential spokesman, Atty. Harry Roque, had earlier appealed to lawmakers to temporarily stop their respective probes to first allow the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to finish its investigation as directed by Malacañang.
The details of the incident remain unclear up to now as both officials of the PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP) apparently agreed to cover up the whole mess that left at least 4 persons dead and the temporary closure of a stretch of Commonwealth Avenue, causing a massive traffic jam.
Both the PNP and the PDEA then claimed they are forming a “joint investigation panel” to determine what actually happened but this was shelved after the Palace agree to let the NBI sort out the matter.
On the appeal of Malacañang, Sotto said this should be directed to the Lower House, which also announced its interest to probe the incident.
Insofar as the Senate is concerned, Sotto said that what he discussed with Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa is SB 3, which seeks to “clarify” what are “actually the functions” of the PDEA under Republic Act 1965, or the ‘Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002’ that created the agency and whose principal author is Sotto.
Dela Rosa, also Pres. Duterte’s first chief of the PNP and chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, had already announced deferring any investigation of the incident, in deference to Pres. Duterte’s request.
Similarly, House leaders have also announced suspending its own hearing as the Palace wanted.
Despite dela Rosa’s announcement, Sotto stressed his proposed Senate hearing would only focus on how the PDEA had ‘metamorphosed’ into a national anti-drug agency not originally intended by RA 9165.
“Ang problema, throughout the years, nag-metamorphosize siya na iba ang dating sa kanila (anti-drug officials).
“Ginawa nila, pati nung mga leaders nung araw, ginawang sariling police force yung PDEA eh hindi nga ganoon yun, ang intention noon, supervisory ang PDEA over all anti-narcotics units in the entire country.
“The incident last February 24 should not have happened, if they only follow the intention of the law,” the Senate leader said.
Aside from this, Sotto also lamented that other government agencies connected with the implementation of RA 9165 such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH), were not “successful” in fulfilling their tasks under the law.
To resolve and clarify the issues surrounding the implementation of RA 9165 as well as the importance of the new presidential office against illegal drugs are the focus of the Senate hearing he wants dela Rosa to call by Tuesday, March 2, 2021, Sotto explained. “So, what ‘investigation’ are they (Malacañang) talking about?”