The director of the PDEA in Metro Manila has been relieved of his post “for command responsibility” after three of his subordinates, including the agency’s top official in its southern Metro office, were arrested in a buy-bust operation.
PDEA agents Anthony Vic Alabastro and Jaireh Llaguno, as well as Lucero’s personal driver Mark Warren Mallo, who yielded 1.35 kilos of shabu worth more than P9 million, were also taken into police custody.
They were charged on Dec. 8 with the sale and possession of illegal drugs in the Taguig City prosecutor’s office. Derrick Carreon, spokesperson for PDEA, said that Frivaldo’s relief “was a normal course [of action].” “It’s command responsibility. If there are incidents like that, [a PDEA official] is getting relieved administratively, it’s not because he is facing a case but because of the incident. It’s normal to be relieved from a post,” he added.Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, who was also at the briefing, vowed to get rid of scalawags among the ranks of law enforcement agencies.
According to him, the government will “take steps” to address the issue “in the next few days.” The PDEA is an agency under the Office of the President while as interior chief, Abalos has supervision over the PNP.Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, former PNP chief, said on Tuesday that former President Rodrigo Duterte was “saddened” by the supposed resurgence of the country’s drug problem barely six months after he stepped down from power.
“The illegal drug business is back,” Dela Rosa told reporters, apparently glossing over the fact that Duterte had failed to keep his campaign promise to eradicate the narcotics problem in three to six months once he took office in 2016.
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