PNP’S STAND DOWN ORDER

WITH the undermanned Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as the lead agency in the campaign against illegal drugs, the situation in Dagupan appears to have began to turn for the worse even before it could get better.

P/Supt. Neil Miro, acting police chief, said his station has verified reports that a number of drug personalities have returned to their barangays and resumed their illegal drug activities.

“We passed on the information to PDEA since it has now the primary mandate to go against these drug personalities since we’ve been ordered to desist from conducting buy-bust and serving of search warrants,” Miro told The PUNCH in an exclusive interview.

He said the return of more drug personalities can be expected since the drug personalities know that the police can no longer operate and there are only eight PDEA operatives in Pangasinan.

He said this development at this time saddens him because 90 percent of the 31 barangays in the city have already been cleared before the “stand down” order was issued.

“We have three more barangays to clear — Calmay, Pugaro and Barangay 1 & 2 but we can no longer proceed because of the directive from the national headquarters prohibiting all members of the PNP from conducting buy-bust and search warrant operations,” he said.

Nonetheless, Miro said a close coordination with the PDEA, passing all information related to illegal drugs, has been established.

He, however, confirmed that he has not heard of any operation by PDEA in Dagupan since the police stopped their operations against illegal drugs.

Miro expressed serious doubts that the eight PDEA operatives in the province can possibly accomplish the target of clearing Pangasinan of illegal drugs even if they are all industrious and work double time.

In the meantime, the police in Dagupan are concentrating  on seven focused crimes: murder, homicide, physical injury, robbery, theft, motornapping and rape.

In line with this, they have intensified the integrated patrol system and had activated checkpoints, especially at dawn.

On illegal gambling, he said his station could only operate against “hataw” because they are prevented from operating on Meredien, Gaming Corporation’s alleged ‘jai-teng’ (jai-alai off fronton operations as cover for jueteng) as it is reportedly covered by legal documents from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the operation of Small town Lottery.

He said they have to be careful lest they end up being, charged in court for illegal arrests.

He said they can only act once PCSO revokes Meridien’s STL license. (Leonardo Micua)

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