The Philippine National Police (PNP) will set sanctions over police officers who will not comply with the operational guidelines on anti-illegal drug operations.
Both the PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) created guidelines to stop any miscommunication between the two agencies in the middle of a drug operation.
“Well, these are specific guidelines that we created. So we can give policemen sanctions, or they could get punished administratively,” PNP chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar said in a mix of Filipino and English during his weekly press conference.
“What I can guarantee you is we will do our best through these guidelines, there will be effective supervision so that misencounters will not happen again,” he added.
Eleazar explained that under the guidelines, rigid coordination procedures that must indicate specific areas of law enforcement operation at station level in big cities will be enforced.
“What we will avoid is for operatives of the PNP and PDEA to operate in one place at one particular time,” Eleazar said partly in Filipino.
The PNP chief noted that illegal drug syndicates were taking advantage of gaps in procedures between the two law enforcement agencies.
The Quezon City police officers and PDEA agents almost met in a shootout last week but it was stopped after police officers introduced themselves to the anti-illegal drugs agents.
Eleazar cleared that both agencies were aiming for the same drug group in the legitimate buy-bust operation.
“I can say they have the same group but their target has different personalities that is why PNP and PDEA had the same operation at that location,” the PNP chief said in Filipino. Ronald dela Cruz