Unified rules on drug ops completed this June —PDEA chief

The law enforcement guidelines of the country's security forces, which were crafted to prevent misencounter, will be completed by the end of June, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Wilkins Villanueva said Sunday.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar previously bared the operational guidelines will include rigid procedures such as indicating specific areas of law enforcement operation at the station level in big cities.

"Patapos na ito before the end of the month. Magpipirmahan na kami ni Chief PNP General Eleazar. Ito 'yung unified operational guidelines ng  PDEA at ng pulis para once and for all maiwasan ang engkuwentro," Villanueva said on Dobol B TV.

(The unified operational guidelines of PDEA and PNP will be done by the end of the month. PNP chief General Eleazar and I will sign it. This will once and for all avoid misencounters.)

After forces of Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and PDEA agents almost had a misecounter in mid-May, the two heads of the leading agencies in the country's bloody drug war decided to create guidelines to iron out procedures in anti-drug operations.

To recall, in February, elements of QCPD and PDEA agents had a fatal shootout during a buy-bust operation. Two cops died in the misencounter on Commonwealth Avenue. —KG, GMA News