EXCLUSIVE

QCPD detainee in Commonwealth shootout says she was to buy shabu from PDEA asset

The detainee of the Quezon City Police District who figured in the deadly Commonwealth Avenue shootout said she had posed as a buyer of a kilo of shabu from a seller who turned out to be an asset of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency before the incident on February 24.

In John Consulta's exclusive report on "24 Oras", Jonaite Decena said policemen sought her help in conducting a buy-bust operation against the group of a certain James Tan.

Decena said in a sworn statement submitted to the NBI that the buy-bust operation was supposed to happen in the Litex area on February 24.

James Tan's group, however, had car trouble which led to the transaction getting set at the vicinity of a fastfood restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue.

Decena can be seen in a CCTV footage of the shooting approaching a white car with Police Corporal Elvin Garado while PDEA asset Untong Matalnas stood at the driver's side.

She said Garado went ahead after he saw that there were too many persons inside the car. 

Decena said a man in the car identified Garado as a cop and it was when the shootout started.

Both the QCPD and the PDEA have insisted that they were conducting a legitimate buy-bust operation when the incident happened. -NB, GMA News