BGen. R'Win Pagkalinawan, director of the Police Regional Office Cordillera (PNA photo by Liza T. Agoot)
BAGUIO CITY – The leadership of the Police Regional Office Cordillera (PROCOR) has dissolved the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) after two of its personnel were found to be allegedly involved in the abduction of a civilian, whose beheaded remains was later found in a town in Benguet.
“Dinisolve ko na agad, sabi ko ulitin muna natin, review-hin natin kung tama yung natututunan ng mga tao natin sa baba (I already dissolved it. We will first review and see if the lessons that should be learned by our people are appropriate,” said BGen. R’Win Pagkalinawan, regional director of the PROCOR, at the sidelines of the media “Fun Shoot” on Friday.
He said that they were all surprised to learn that the involved personnel operated on their own without informing the office.
“I dissolved it because I don’t like what happened where the personnel operated on their own without telling their superior. That will only show that they are not being guided and they are making their own move,” Pagkalinawan said.
He said provinces have their drug enforcement units, which will do the function of enforcing the anti-illegal drugs law.
“All the other personnel have been ordered to return to their respective units,” he said while the two policemen have been placed on restrictive custody pending the result of the investigation and determination of the case to be filed.
He said they just got an order from the higher headquarters to subject DEU personnel to drug testing.
On November 12, a headless remains was found in Tublay, Benguet. This was followed by a social media post showing five people abducting a person at Barangay Irisan.
Police later learned that the headless remains was that of the person who was abducted.
An investigation by the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), which included subjecting the video clip to forensics to make the faces of the persons clearer, allowed them to identify two of the abductors as personnel of the RDEU who are assigned at Baguio-DEU.
Identification of the three other persons is still ongoing.
The general said the Internal Affairs Service is also probing the incident for the administrative side of the case.
Boosting the morale of other cops
Pagkalinawan urged anti-illegal drugs operating units to continue what they have been doing in the past to rid the communities of illegal drugs.
“Bilib naman ako sa (I have trust in the) provincial DEU who are reporting directly to their provincial directors. Just continue with what they have been doing for so long na kung may nakikita silang krimen, aksyunan na agad (if they see crimes being committed, they immediately act on it),” he said.
The DEU and other police in the whole region are not just doing their regular police functions but also scouring the mountains for the presence of marijuana plantation sites.
The anti-illegal drugs campaign of the government is a priority of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte which is a campaign promise that Pagkalinawan said the region wants to contribute to.
“Gagawin natin ang ating trabaho para maka-contribute tayo sa administration na ang Pilipinas (ay) maging drug-free (we will do our job to contribute to the administration for the Philippines to become drug-free),” he said. (PNA)
