'Drug suspects not covered by media presentation ban'

The recent order of newly installed Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Versoza barring presentation to media of arrested criminals in a “firing squad” manner is no reason to celebrate for drug suspects.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Dionisio Santiago said yesterday those arrested in the government’s anti-narcotics operations would still be presented in press conferences and from now on would be treated differently from other criminal suspects.

“Drug suspects are not covered by the recent order from General Versoza since our agency is not under the national police. We are directly under the Office of the President,” Santiago said in an interview.

Santiago said there is no need to change the mechanism used by PDEA in presenting arrested drug suspects. “We don’t violate any of their (suspects’) human rights here. First, we make sure they had been submitted to prosecutors for inquest before we present them to the media,” the PDEA chief said.

The official hinted that they strictly follow rules on presentation of arrested drug suspects in the PDEA. He cited as example the case of Richard Brodett, Jorge Joseph and Joseph Tecson, the three alleged high-profile dealers of illegal ecstacy pills who were arrested in successive buy-bust operations in Ayala-Alabang Subdivision in Muntinlupa City and Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City on Sept. 20.

The three suspects were not immediately presented to the media since they had not been charged before the prosecutor’s office on the day of their arrest, Santiago recalled. “There was really objection from their lawyers on our plan to present them to the media. Since they were not yet ‘inquested’ at that time, we opted to just present the evidence seized from them by our men instead,” he added.

As his first order after taking the top post of PNP, Versoza ordered last week a ban on “firing squad presentation” to media of arrested criminal suspects with respect to the position of the Commission on Human Rights that parading them in orange t-shirts with the words “police detainee” is in violation of their basic human rights.

The PDEA chief announced his position on the ban on presentation to media of arrested criminal suspects by police at the conclusion of a three-day workshop of the agency for heads of anti-narcotics units of the National Capital Region Police Office and its five districts.

Santiago said the workshop was aimed to build a stronger coordination between the police and PDEA in their intensified drive against illegal drugs.

According to him, it was particularly agreed during the meeting that both agencies would further their efforts to combat “scalawags” in both PNP and PDEA as well as former police officials who have links to big drug syndicates.