Cuenco pushes legal group in DDB to oversee the cases

Cebu City South District Rep. Antonio Cuenco is proposing the creation of a special legal unit in the Dangerous Drugs Board where he is vice chairman.

Cuenco said that this special group shall be composed of lawyers from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Justice and the police.

This proposal is the suggestion of Cuenco to avert conflict among the different agencies just like what is happening in the celebrated “Alabang Boys” case.

The agents of the PDEA and the prosecutors from the DOJ are now at odds and are trading accusations of bribery as an off-shot to the arrest and the release of an order for the three drug suspects — Richard Brodett, Joseph Tecson and Jorge Joseph — to be freed.

With the legal group that Cuenco is proposing, he hopes the conflict between the different agencies would be avoided.

Cuenco said that he would ask President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that a National Drug Summit be called.

He said that this would address the various problems affecting the progress of drug cases.

Cuenco also plans to ask DOJ for a list of dismissed drug cases the past few years so he can study it.

In the case of the “Alabang boys,” Cuenco has denied reports that there was no physical inventory made during the buy-bust operation and said that the proper operation and protocol was followed in the arrest. — AJ de la Torre/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)