More than two years after the bungled P6.7-billion shabu haul in Tondo, a Manila court has finally ordered the arrest of 29 police officers allegedly involved in the messy operation. But what has happened to the “missing” 338 kilograms of crystal meth pilfered by operatives prior to an inventory of the hot goods?
A closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage obtained in the course of a post-operation investigation showed at least three police operatives loading 19 pieces of luggage into a white sedan parked near the Wealth and Personal Development (WPD) lending office on Jose Abad Santos Avenue. The footage was shown during a series of investigations on the case by the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs.
In a seven-hour inquiry of the committee on April 26, 2023, Rep. Romeo Acop of Antipolo City, a former director of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, managed to extract the information about the pilfered substance from Col. Rolando Portera, then chief of the PDEG’s intelligence and foreign liaison division (IFLD). He estimated that the stolen volume from the P6.7 billion worth of shabu on Oct. 8, 2022 was around 380 kg.
Portera said Police Senior Master Sgt. Jerrywin Rebosora had admitted to having kept 30 kg from the shabu haul. This was supposedly set aside for the confidential informant in exchange for the “quality information” that led to the seizure of at least 990 kg of the meth.
But when asked to surrender what they had set aside, Rebosora sent two pieces of luggage, which were later found to contain 42 kg of shabu. Rebosora denied Portera’s statement and invoked his right to remain silent and right against self-incrimination when pressed with more questions.
What has happened to the balance of 338 kg? Based on the estimated value of P6.75 million per kg, the “missing” loot would amount to at least P2.28 billion.
The cases pending in court refer only to the 990 kgs that were inventoried and valued at P6.7 billion. The CCTV showed 19 pieces of luggage loaded into a car supposedly owned by another operative of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), and only two of those were recovered on Oct. 15, 2022, in an abandoned car parked along Boni Serrano Avenue in San Juan City near Camp Crame. Have the 17 other pieces of luggage been found? Have the rogue police officers behind this devilry been identified? We’ve not heard anything about it since then.
Based on Portera’s estimate that his former colleagues in the IFLD pilfered 380 kg of shabu, then the volume of the meth found in the WPD lending office would sum up to 1, 370 kg, or 1.37 tons, with an estimated value of P9.25 billion.
During the House investigation, Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo, who had been relieved as director of the PDEG, said a raid on Naguilian Road in Baguio City on March 29, 2023 yielded 575 kg of shabu that was packed similar to those seized in the Oct. 8, 2022 Manila operation, leading him to conclude that the two shabu hauls could have come from the same source.
Did that mean the drugs stolen from the WPD owned by former PDEG intelligence officer Rodolfo Mayo weighed more than 380 kg, as estimated by Portera? Or were those brought to the raided place in Naguillan where the operatives kept their “share” from other shabu raids?
Mayo owned the WPD lending office where the illegal drugs were seized. He had been dismissed from the police service and faced three counts of grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a police officer. He was a ninja cop in the Manila Police District and was sent to Basilan as a punishment when Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa was PNP chief. However, Lt. Col. Arnulfo Ibañez, who had been relieved as officer in charge of the special operations unit of the PDEG-NCR, brought him back to PDEG. Ibañez himself was on the watch list and was sent to Region 7 as a punishment but was called to the PDEG-NCR in 2020.
More than 42 police officers were initially identified and suspected of involvement in what then interior secretary Benhur Abalos described as a “massive attempt to cover up” the Oct. 8, 2022 arrest of Mayo and other personalities involved in the raid and/or connected to him.
During the congressional investigations, the police officers gave contradictory versions of the many aspects of the drug operation and the possible participation or knowledge of high-ranking PNP officials in the seemingly old practice of setting aside a substantial portion of confiscated drugs as compensation to informants, which the officials themselves handle. Will they be singing the same old tune in court and continue the cover-up?
Last Jan. 14, the Manila Regional Trial Court issued the arrest order for 29 police officers involved in the bungling of the prosecution of arrested personalities implicated in the October 2022 shabu drug operation. The court set a bail of P200,000 for each of them for their temporary liberty.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said 10 of the officers — one lieutenant colonel, one police major, one police captain, one police lieutenant, one executive master sergeant, one senior master sergeant and four patrolmen — are now in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. A manhunt is underway for 19 other respondents.
Would any of the 29 talk about the “missing” 338 kg of shabu?
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
