PDEA chief: Baka pinapanood tayo ngayon ng sindikato at pinag-aaway

The drug syndicate supposed to be the target of a deadly buy-bust operation in Quezon City on Wednesday is probably monitoring the current situation and waiting for a conflict to erupt between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

This was the concern expressed by PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva during a joint PNP-PDEA press conference as he appealed to the public to give them time  to investigate the supposed misencounter.

“[H]indi natin alam baka yung sindikato ay pinanood lang tayo at pinagaaway lang tayo pareho. At hindi namin ‘yan puwede payagan,” Villanueva said.

On Wednesday, two policemen, one PDEA agent, and one informant were killed during the shootout at a fast food joint beside the Ever Gotesco Mall on Commonwealth Avenue.

Villanueva said syndicates have thoroughly studied the techniques of both the PNP and PDEA when conducting operations.

“These syndicates ay talagang aral na nang husto ‘yan. Kaya sinasabi ko nga, alam na nila ang modus na ginagawa, ang technique ng both PNP at PDEA. As far as kung saan ang buy-bust area,” he said.

Villanueva admitted the agency has been “played” by syndicates before but he cannot say yet that the same thing happened on Wednesday.

“Before napaglaruan na kami. Before. Ito hindi pa namin puwedeng sabihin naglaro sila dito sa amin. Kaya nga kasi iniimbestigahan namin ito. Iniimbestigahan nga natin,” he said.

“Masyadong maaga para sabihin nating pinaglaruan agad tayo pero possible na pinaglaruan tayo. Pero ‘yun ang focus of this investigation,” he added.

The PNP and the PDEA have claimed that both buy-bust operations were legitimate.

However, the chiefs of both agencies refused to give any details on the incident as they did not want to preempt the investigation being conducted by the Board of Inquiry.

“‘Yun nga sinasabi ko, puwede ba ay pagbiyan ninyo muna ang Board of Inquiry to come up with a good and authentic investigation. Kasi iba 'yung, according sa PNP ito ‘yung nangyari, according sa PDEA ito ‘yung nangyari,” he said.

“Hindi naman namin puwedeng pagsabungin 'yung sarili natin na ito ‘yung nangyari, ito ‘yung nangyari. But both of them are doing their job. So that’s what we are working on. Kung paano natin itutugma kung ano ang version nila at ano ang version natin,” he added. -MDM/AOL, GMA News