Acorda: PNP now vetting all police drug enforcement units

The Philippine National Police is now examining all its drug enforcement units following the alleged involvement of some cops in the 990-kilo shabu drug haul in 2022, its chief Police General Benjamin Acorda Jr. said Wednesday.

“What we are doing now is really conducting vetting on these all drug enforcement units, hindi lang po sa PDEG but to all DEUs, mapa-region, mapa-probinsya and tuloy -uloy po ito,” Acorda told reporters.

(What we are doing now is really conducting vetting on all drug enforcement units (DEUs), not only the PNP Drug Enforcement Group but to all DEUs in the region or province and this will be continuous.)

Acorda added that they are also studying dissolving special operations units.

“What we want is yung concept talaga ng pag-conduct ng operation (the concept of the conduct of the operation) and how they will implement their job. We will come up with a final decision on that,” he said.

In October 2022, now-dismissed Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr. was arrested after authorities confiscated shabu worth P6.7 billion following a series of anti-drug operations in Manila.

Mayo is an intelligence officer for the PDEG, based on police records.

Police officers allegedly pilfered around 42 kilos of shabu from the illegal drugs seized from Mayo.

Due to this, 49 PNP officials and personnel would face criminal and administrative charges due to their alleged cover-up of the incident.

Recently, six personnel of PDEG-Central Visayas have been charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

Acorda said the PNP will impose possible administrative sanctions against the implicated police personnel. —VAL, GMA Integrated News