5 more cops held in contempt over drug mess

Five more police officers were cited for contempt on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on a suspicious P6.7 billion drug bust in Manila last year, leading the panel’s chairman, Senator Ronald dela Rosa to fall to his knees and beg cops to tell the truth.

“I am kneeling before you. Please speak. Pity the Philippines,” said Dela Rosa as he rose from his seat and knelt down.

Dela Rosa, who used to be a police chief, said he humbled himself so that the policemen would tell the truth about the drug bust, led by then Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., in which 42 of the 990 kilos seized went missing.

Mayo, who has been detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig after being cited for contempt, has been accused of being behind a cover-up that involves other police officials as well.

Dela Rosa’s committee cited in contempt five other policemen: National Capital Region Drug Enforcement (DEG) OIC Lt. Col. Arnulfo Ibañez, Pol. Master Sgt. Carlo Bayeta, Pat. Rommar Bugarin, Pat. Hustin Peter Gular, Pat. Hassan Kalaw, and Pat. Dennis Carolino. They declined to share information on the arrest of Mayo in Bambang last year.

Senator Raffy Tulfo suggested to Dela Rosa to cite Ibañez for contempt for testifying that he was not aware of his subordinate’s activities.

Earlier, Ibañez claimed he was innocent and had no knowledge of Mayo’s movements, which Tulfo doubted.

Last week, Dela Rosa ordered P/Capt. Jonathan Sosongco of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) to be detained for lying.

Visibly irritated with the “many lies” in Sosongco’s testimony, Dela Rosa directed the Office Of the Sergeant at Arms to escort Sosongco to the building’s detention facility in the basement.

During the hearing, Dela Rosa pressed Sosongco for information about the informant who tipped off P/Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo about the drugs. But a cell phone number provided by Sosongco no longer worked.

At this juncture, Dela Rosa flared up and accused Sosongco of fooling the senators and wasting their time so he asked Senator Robinhood Padilla to ask the Senate panel that the police officer be cited for contempt.

Sosongco was among the policemen the PNP said should be charged for the cover-up involving the multi-billion-peso drug operation.

Padilla, meanwhile, has filed Senate Bill 2217 seeking the death penalty for law enforcers and elective officials involved in the drug trade.

Padilla, in his bill, said the leniency of current laws has caused a “sorry state of affairs where law enforcers are now unafraid to be involved in illegal drugs,” and that the government must “respond with a staunch and decisive measure” by changing the law.

“It is an incontrovertible truth that the illegal drug trade and prevalence become so entrenched and systematic that its rot sets in the very core of our public institutions. To reinstate the rule of law and rebuild the trust of the Filipino people, we must re-impose the death penalty as a strong deterrent to grave offenders from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, any uniformed or law enforcement agency, or an elective official who are entrusted with the public power by the people,” he said.

The bill seeks to amend Sections 27 and 28 of RA 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022, seeking to impose the death penalty when the offender is an officer or member of the AFP, PNP “or any other uniformed or law enforcement agency.”

Any elective local or national official found to have benefited from the proceeds of drug trafficking or received financial or material contributions or donations from those found guilty of trafficking dangerous drugs shall suffer the penalty of death without prejudice to removal from office and perpetually disqualified from holding government positions.

But the death sentence shall not be inflicted upon a woman while pregnant or one year after delivery; or any person over 70 years of age. — Macon Ramos-Araneta

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