TAYUG – Four Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents from the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), who were recently charged for kidnapping and illegal possession of dangerous drugs, have been slapped with another administrative case before the Internal Affairs Service (IAS).

Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, Ilocos regional police director, relayed this to The PUNCH through a text message and added that he has also directed Superintendent Noli Taliño, deputy provincial police director of Pangasinan for operations and provincial intelligence officer, to get records from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as two of the suspects have reportedly been charged previously for a similar offense.

The IAS is an independent investigative body for administrative cases against policemen.

San Quintin town police filed on November 6 the illegal possession of dangerous drugs case against the four PDEA agents. This was on top of the kidnap for ransom case filed Friday before the provincial prosecutor’s office here.

The accused PDEA agents are Chief Inspector Forfillio Calagan, the team leader, SPO4s Marquez Madlon and Arthur Lucas, and PO2 Edwin Garcia.

Bataoil also said Madlon and Garcia have been sued by NBI Baguio City for qualified bribery and anti-graft and corruption cases in December 2005.

The suspects were turned over to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology on Tuesday.

The four, along with two other still unidentified men, allegedly abducted Liza Marquez and her stepson Denver Evangelista in Barangay Alac, San Quintin on November 2 and demanded P400,000, which was later lowered to P110,000, for the release of the two victims. Relatives of the victims immediately reported the incident to the police.

A payoff was made but the suspects were caught in a dragnet operation in Tayug town by combined police operatives from neighboring towns, the police provincial office and the Provincial Mobile Group in Tayug.

Shabu, an illegal drug, was recovered from the suspects’ car during the dragnet operation.

The suspects claim that their operation was official.

However, the PDEA Region 1 director as well as the provincial and local police maintain that no coordination was made with them regarding the supposed raid.

Meanwhile, Taliño said the artist’s sketches of the two other PDEA assets who managed to escape are already out in order to help probers identify them.

Bataoil wants them included in the cases filed against the four PDEA agents. — EVA

2 criminals arrested

Meanwhile, the  leader of a notorious organized crime group involved in hijacking, car theft, drug pushing and robbery incidents in Pangasinan was arrested on November 7 in his hiding place in Barangay San Aurelio III, Balungao town by a team composed of men from the regional intelligence office, local police and the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division.

Identified the suspect as Ronald Pine of the Pine Group, one of the top most wanted persons in the Ilocos region charged with two counts of murder.

A P300,000 reward was up for his arrest as indicated in a memorandum circular issued by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) dated Oct. 26, 2006.

On the same day, the police regional office 1, together with the personnel of Dagupan City Police Station, arrested another top-most wanted person identified as Geronimo Martinez at Dasmariñas Village, Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City.

Martinez is also charged with murder, and a monetary reward of P140,000.00 is on his head.

The arrest of Pine and Martinez came after a series of intelligence and surveillance operations in line with manhunt operations of the Philippine National Police.

Bataoil commended the participating agents for the successful arrest of these two criminals. He further directed other police force to intensify their operations to neutralize syndicated crimes particularly kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, highway and bank robbery.–EVA

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