Cops should liaise with PDEA prior to Drug Raid – Director Tacio

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The new regional chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Region 1 said that all operations of the Philippine National Police on the implementation of raids and searches against suspected dangerous drug personalities should be coordinated with the PDEA.

PDEA. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Regional Director Jeoffrey C. Tacio 

poses with Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez at the world class Stadia during the

 turn-over ceremony of the new Chief of Police (COP) Superintendent Niel Miro from 
outgoing COP Christopher Abrahano. PHOTO: Mortz C. Ortigoza

“Hinde hinde, they have to coordinate prior to the operation,” stressed by Regional Director Jeoffrey C. Tacio, when asked if the police can coordinate after their raid or search on the residence or den of drug personalities.

According to the The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 or Republic Act No. 9165 and PNP Manual on Anti-Illegal Drugs Operation and Investigation, a PNP unit, prior to any anti-drug operations shall, as far as practicable, coordinate with the PDEA.

Even after the raid or search, it says there that “(b) In any case, the PNP anti-drug units shall coordinate or inform the PDEA of the anti-drug operation within 24 hours from the time of the actual custody of the suspects or seizure of said drugs and substances as well as paraphernalia and transport equipment used in illegal activities involving such drugs and/or substances and shall regularly update the PDEA on the status of the cases involving the said anti-drug operation. (Section 86 (a) IRR RA 9165); (c.) The word “As far as practicable” as being used in Section 86, IRR, RA 9165, means that which prior coordination with the PDEA may be done, practiced or accomplished and which is feasible and possible to be performed”.

 However there are exceptions by the police not coordinating with the PDEA as based on Section 86 of RA 9165. They are: 1) In remote places where coordination is not possible; 2) When coordination will compromise the lives of police operatives, informant and witnesses, involved in anti-drug operation; 3) When coordination will prejudice the apprehension of drug suspects and confiscation of dangerous drugs and Controlled Precursors and Essential Chemicals (CPECs).

Tacio said that just like the marching order given by President Rodrigo Duterte, the PDEA has to soldier- on with the time frame of six months to eliminate the proliferation of illegal drugs in country.

“We have the same time frame three to six months,” he quipped during an official function sponsored by this City’s Mayor Belen T. Fernandez.

Tacio, who just assumed office as the top whip of PDEA, is a classmate at the Philippine Military Academy of his immediate predecessor Director Adrian G. Alvarino at the regional office based in San Fernando, La Union.

Both are members of PMA Class 2000.

The new regional director was formerly assigned in Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Bicol, and Region 3 in 2013.

Alvarino on the other hand was assigned in Region 10 or Northern Mindanao.  He recently hit the headlines when he arrested there top dangerous drugs personalities’ Johaira Abinal alias “Mayora Marimar,” former mayor of Maguing, Lanao del Sur and her husband, Army Major Suharto Tambidan Macabuat and others.

Marimar, dubbed as the Queen of Shabu in the South, was the “mayora” named earlier by President Duterte as one of the biggest drug dealers in Mindanao, according to Alvarino.