PDEA mulls legal remedies to defend personnel in QC misencounter
MANILA – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will exhaust all available legal remedies relative to the criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice’s National Prosecution Service (NPS) against three PDEA operatives and four policers following the alleged misencounter in Quezon City in February last year.
In a statement on Saturday, PDEA spokesperson Derrick Arnold Carreon said the agency stands by its Drug Enforcement Officers’(DEO) action on Feb. 24, 2021 when two separate anti-drug operations ended in a misencounter in front of a fast-food chain, killing two PDEA agents and two police officers.
“In light of this resolution and after the conduct of its own internal investigation, the PDEA unequivocally stands behind the actions of its DEOs, that the actions of the PDEA agents in that fateful afternoon embody the agency’s brand of professionalism and excellence,” Carreon said.
He said the PDEA respects the authority and competence of the NPS in the conduct of its preliminary investigation but “the PDEA finds that much is to be desired upon learning of the National Prosecution Service’s Resolution.”
Carreon said the agency “remains steadfast that facts, indisputable circumstances, electronic evidence in the form of CCTV footages, jurisprudence and other pieces of evidence sufficiently show the culpability and accountability of the police commissioned and non-commissioned officers involved in the incident.’’
In recognition of the sacrifices of the PDEA officers and personnel to fight illegal drugs in the country, Carreon said all available legal remedies will be used against the NPS’s resolution.
“It is also in the highest interest of the Filipino people that these events be thoroughly examined, and justice be impartially served so as not to jeopardize the government’s anti-illegal drugs efforts,” said Carreon.
Justice system works
For his part, Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, PNP director for operations said they respect the NPS’s decision to indict their four police officers.
"This is another proof that the justice system in our country works and this will serve as an opportunity for both the PDEA agents and the policemen concerned to explain their side as part of the due process," De Leon said in a separate statement.
dismally low in the country. According to Media Partners Asia, in December 2021, the fiber penetration in the Philippines is just 17 percent of households, way behind several ASEAN neighbors whose penetration rate has breached 40 percent, even reaching 80 percent for Vietnam.
The target of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development is for middle-income countries including the Philippines to reach 65 percent broadband internet penetration by 2025.
As part of its mission to reach unserved markets, around 95 percent of new subscribers of Converge are first-time high-speed broadband users.
Amid its aggressive expansion in the past two years, the subscriber base of Converge has been steadily growing from 529,629 subscribers as of end-2019 to nearly double at over one million in 2020 and jumping further to 1.8 million subscribers at the end of March 2022.
remains