House panel: Dismissed cop Mayo liable for drug possession

A House committee on Wednesday recommended the filing of drug possession charges against former Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr., the policeman arrested in October last year in connection with P6.7-billion drug haul in Manila. 

The same panel also recommended the filing of planting of evidence complaint against an entire police anti-drug unit in relation to the same drug haul.

According to the unnumbered committee report approved by the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, there was a attempt on the police officials’ part to cover up Mayo's arrest on October 8, 2022 because of the following reasons:

• PDEG’s (Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group) failure to present Mayo as one of the accused during the inventory and photograph of the seized 990 kilos of shabu;
• failure to include Mayo in the affidavit of arrest and spot report of the PDEG operation on October 8, 2022; 
• releasing Mayo to participate in a follow-up operation;
• allowing Mayo to become an arresting officer in the execution of a warrant of arrest against Juden Francisco in Pasig; and
• recommending him to receive the “Medalya ng Kagalingan” after the operation.

"All these were intended to clear his name and cover-up his arrest on 8 October 2022," the committee report read.

"Mayo was actually arrested on October 8, 2022 at around 1:00PM and not in a hot-pursuit operation on October 9, 2022, as reported by the PNP. There was no legitimate hot pursuit operation conducted against Mayo on October 9, 2022. Instead, said operation was merely a pretext used to conceal the earlier arrest of  Mayo," it added.

When the evidence warrants, the House committee said Mayo should also be charged for possession of the two kilos of shabu during the reported buy-bust operation allegedly conducted prior to the discovery of the 990 kilos of shabu.

The committee also found the entire PDEG Special Operations Unit (SOU) Region 4A liable for planting of evidence under Section 29 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022, since there was no buy-bust operation conducted against alleged drug personality Ney Atadero within the premises of WPD Lending on October 8, 2022.

"The PNP, in its official narrative, claimed that Mr. Ney Atadero was arrested in a buy-bust operation at 4:30PM on October 8, 2022, while selling two kilos of illegal drugs inside the WPD Lending establishment.  The CCTV footage from the WPD Lending office disputed their claims that the buy-bust operation took place at 4:30PM," the committee report said. 

"Instead, it disclosed that the operating unit, led by Sosongco, arrived at 1:20PM in the WPD building escorting a handcuffed individual identified as Mayo. From 1:56PM to 2:06PM, Mr. Atadero was seen talking freely with some members of the PDEG in front of the establishment," it added.

The same committee report noted that while these individuals were having a conversation, Mayo was seen being brought in and out of the WPD Lending building. It also said that unlike Mayo, Atadero was not handcuffed.

"After careful scrutiny of the CCTV footage and the contradictory statements of the persons involved, the Committee is certain that there was no buy-bust operation at 4:45PM in the WPD Lending office on October 8, 2022.  Mr. Atadero was no longer seen in the CCTV footages after this time," the committee report said.

"The circumstances surrounding the arrest of Ney Atadero on October 8, 2022 and the arrest of Mayo the next day, October 9, 2022 are flawed, leading to bungled operations which would ultimately result in the dismissal of cases filed against them," it added.

Police officials during the hearing told the House committee contrasting stories of the October 8, 2022 drug operation.

Colonel Julian Olonan, the then-chief of PDEG-SOU 4A, told lawmakers  that Mayo was arrested in Bambang, Sta. Cruz, Manila on October 8, 2022 based on the information he got from Sosongco, head of the PDEG SOU 4A arresting team. 

Sosongco, however, denied arresting Mayo on October 8, 2022 and insisted that the individual his team arrested on that day was Atadero, the director of WPD Lending Service.  —KBK, GMA Integrated News