Senate defers 'misencounter' probe anew over PNP, PDEA chiefs health

The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs is postponing again its investigation into the deadly "misencounter" between police personnel and agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency after both heads of the two agencies tested positive for COVID-19.

In an advisory sent to media on Sunday, the office of Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, who chairs the panel, said the inquiry, which has been rescheduled for Monday, is being postponed again "until further notice."

The advisory was sent just hours after PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva announced that he tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief General Debold Sinas was also confirmed last week to have tested positive for COVID-19

"Please be informed that tomorrow’s Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs hearing on the PNP-PDEA misencounter is indefinitely postponed again for reasons that Gen. Sinas and DG Villanueva both tested positive for Covid19 and all other resource persons from both camps are exposed to their principal and further advised to undergo quarantine," said Dela Rosa in the advisory.

"One of the close contacts of Gen. Sinas and Gen. Danao, PLTCOL Exclamadura, died yesterday after testing positive together with the CPNP. Committee hearings of this kind can be more frustrating if done virtually," he added.

Earlier, the panel scheduled the hearing for March 2, but ended up deferring it to allow the National Bureau of Investigation to do its probe first.

An initial report by the NBI indicated that two PDEA agents and an informant were killed in the shootout during a supposed anti-drug operation. Two bemedaled police officers for the Quezon City Police were also killed.

A report by investigators from the QCPD Station 6 in the Batasan area said the policemen conducted a buy-bust operation in an area along Commonwealth Avenue "with complete coordination and necessary papers."

The report said the QCPD officers later learned that they were transacting with PDEA agents.

Both the PNP and the PDEA said their teams were on legitimate buy-bust operations and coordinated with each other prior to the shooting incident. —LBG, GMA News