Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 25) — Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged the Philippine National Police to probe the alleged use of detainees in anti-illegal drug operations.
The lawmaker first reported the purported practice during a Senate hearing on Monday. She presented a video of a female detainee who claimed she worked with the police in a buy-bust operation in a Quezon City mall on May 14 that almost led to a “misencounter” between PNP and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency agents.
Hontiveros said this is not the first time a detainee alleged she was made to take part of an entrapment operation.
“In Feb., in that bloody misencounter, iyong isang nagngangalang Jonaire Decena, babae rin, inamin rin niya na ‘nagpatulong’ nga raw sa kanya ang PNP sa buy bust operation nila,” Hontiveros told CNN Philippines’ New Day.
[Translation: In Feb. in that bloody misencounter, some Jonaire Decena, also female, admitted the PNP asked for her help in a buy-bust operation.]
She was referring to the drug bust on Feb. 24 that led to a deadly shootout between anti-drug operatives of the PNP and PDEA. At least four people died in the incident.
It is “alarming” if involving detained individuals in entrapments is a common practice among the police, the senator said, adding the National Bureau of Investigation views it as “problematic.”
“The PNP must simply investigate that alleged practice of using detainees during anti-illegal drug operations,” Hontiveros said.
She added this supposed procedure shows the lack of a “clean and firm system in addressing problematic drug use.”
