Editorial

Illegal drugs and cops

The alleged involvement of police officers in the recent discovery and subsequent raid on a large shabu factory in Naguillan, La Union is a testimony to the fact that some lawmen, not only in the Ilocos Region but nationwide are involved in illegal drugs.

In the Cordillera, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Dionisio Santiago has also ordered an independent investigation on possible involvement of a former police chief of Kapangan town in Benguet on disappearance of many marijuana bricks seized last June.
Initial investigation reports bared a certain Robert Baludda, an alleged drug trafficker operating in Benguet and La Union, yielded at least 100 marijuana bricks weighing 100 kilos when he was nabbed second week of June.

Baludda was reportedly released an hour later allegedly in exchange for a promise to repair the kitchen of the Kapangan police station. Benguet board member Rogelio Leon, a former mayor of Kapangan, initiated an investigation that reportedly found out policemen had reported they only seized 40 bricks or 40 kilos of marijuana bricks.

Kapangan police, however, denied the allegations making Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Eugene Martin to order an investigation after Capela and six other policemen were relieved from their posts a week ago. Derreck Carreon, spokesman of the PDEA national headquarters, said they were also conducting their own “careful investigation” on the missing marijuana bricks.

Who has the bricks? It is a dismay, but it is also a fact that law enforcers have been involved in crimes like the drug trade. If the number of addicts is rising in northern Luzon, it is because of the tolerance or involvement of police officers themselves in the lucrative but illegal business.