Banac: No ranking PNP official involved in drug recycling alleged by PDEA

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday said there is no report that a ranking official was involved in the "recycling" of drugs that the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said is being carried out by government agents and cops.

PNP spokesperson Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac told GMA News Online that incidents of drug recycling are "rare and usually done by few rotten, rogue, misfit cops only."

"No ranking officials reported or monitored so far," Banac said.

"We assure the public that these bad cops are just really few. Majority of anti-drug cops remain professional and disciplined," he added.

PDEA chief Director General Aaron Aquino on Monday declared that drug recycling continues, noting that a suspected female drug lord was allegedly buying confiscated drugs from law enforcement agencies.

Banac said the public must help in reporting this kind of crime, allegedly committed by a few undisciplined cops, to authorities.

For his part, National Capital Region Police Office chief Police Major General Guillermo Eleazar said he cannot completely agree with Aquino's remark.

"Unless they can identify to us these said policemen with validated reports, the sweeping statement made by the PDEA Director is not necessarily true, on face value," Eleazar said in a statement.

"I do not believe these are rampant enough to constitute the primary reason for the continuing drug trade in Metro Manila. In fact, I would like to believe that this drug recycling malpractice is not existent anymore," he added.

He noted that the NCRPO has not recorded any drug-related incident involving its active members in the past months.

Eleazar also referred to the huge volume of illegal drugs that authorities had recently seized, including 30 kilos of shabu worth P204 million seized on Monday from a condominium building in Pasig City.

Eleazar said the Senate and PDEA should focus more on investigating the seizure of large quantities of illegal drugs.

"From our operations this week where we discovered huge volumes of shabu, it is sad to note that the war on drugs is far from over. Truly, our country can use all the help that the honorable Senate can provide," Eleazar said.

Eleazar stated that the matter of policemen recycling drugs must be extremely isolated, if not non-existent at all, in Metro Manila. — BM, GMA News