SolGen Calida to PNP: I will defend police in war on drugs

Solicitor General Jose Calida slammed Senator and former Justice Secretary Leila De Lima for allegedly planning to launch an “investigation in aid of media mileage” and not “in aid of legislation.” Jose Calida, Facebook; Philstar.com

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) – Solicitor General Jose Calida said Monday police officers facing harassment cases in connection with the administration’s war on drugs can expect legal support from his office.

Calida made the statement after meeting Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald Dela Rosa at Camp Crame. He said he will not allow anyone to obstruct the government's efforts to stop the drug menace in the country.

"I am here to encourage the PNP not to be afraid of any Congressional or Senate investigations,” Calida said. “We will defend them. If there is a fiscalizer, I am the neutralizer and the defender of the PNP.”

Calida was responding to a call by Sen. Leila De Lima, a former Justice Secretary, for a probe on the series of drug-related killings by the police.

De Lima has expressed alarm over daily reports of suspected drug dealers and even users killed in police operations. According to PNP, there were 103 suspects killed and 5,845 arrested from May 10 to July 3 in anti-illegal drugs operations.

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"What happened during her tenure?” Calida said. Answering his own question, he said, “Lalong lumakas ang proliferation of drugs even in her own turf."

[Translation: The proliferation of drugs worsened even in her own turf.]

He said De Lima apparently has not done enough to stop the drug menace as Justice Secretary in charge of the National Bureau of Investigation, the prosecution service and the correctional institutions. He said that the Senate probe on the killings is not principally intended to help stop drug trafficking.

“Hindi po ito (This is not an) investigation in aid of legislation. To me, I think, it is investigation in aid of media mileage,” he said.

“This is a serious situation now, hindi papogihan sa (it’s not to look good in the) media,” he said. “The police are risking their lives. It is the height of naiveté for Secretary De Lima, who apparently does not know the mind of a crazed drug addict."

He said there is always a “presumption of regularity” in all police operations, that's why De Lima's call for a hearing is based purely on hearsay. Presumption of regularity implies authorities follow the law, including police rules of engagement by shooting suspects only in self-defense.

Calida said during De Lima’s term as Justice Secretary, illegal drugs proliferated especially in the New Bilibid Prison. He said his office is considering filing charges against De Lima in connection with that. – CNN Philippines

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Mysterious Blast in Philippines Fuels Rodrigo Duterte's 'Hatred' of U.S.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s “hatred” for the U.S. is linked to a blast incident in a Davao City hotel room in 2002 involving a criminal suspect whom the American agents spirited away to Manila and then to the U.S. without the permission of the local government – Photo: AsiaTimes

MANILA — For more than a decade, a mysterious explosion at the Evergreen Hotel in Davao City has been a footnote in the long, checkered history between the Philippines and its former colonial master, the United States. But among those who never let it go was the city’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte — who is now poised to become the Philippines’ new president.

In an interview last year before he announced his candidacy, Mr. Duterte went so far as to acknowledge “hatred” for the United States stemming from the obscure episode, when an American named Michael Terrence Meiring was charged with possession of explosives but managed to flee the Philippines.

Mr. Meiring called himself a treasure hunter and joked about being with the C.I.A., meaning “Christ in Action.” He told the hotel staff not to touch a metal box in his room, apparently with good reason. On May 16, 2002, the box exploded, mangling his legs and damaging the hotel.

But three days later, despite severe injuries and the charges against him, Mr. Meiring vanished from his hospital room. Philippine officials later said that men waving F.B.I. badges had taken him in the dark of night and flown him out of the country without their permission.

Mr. Duterte expressed outrage that the United States would help a criminal suspect leave the country without regard to Philippine law. He also fanned speculation that Mr. Meiring was involved in covert operations conducted by the United States in the Philippines.

Fourteen years later and scheduled to be sworn in as president on June 30, Mr. Duterte is still angry.

Last month, he threatened to cut ties with Washington in response to critical comments from the United States ambassador to the Philippines, Philip S. Goldberg. “Go ahead and sever it,” Mr. Duterte snapped, referring to diplomatic relations. His spokesman, Peter Laviña, explained that Mr. Duterte’s hostility originated with the Meiring case.

“Mayor Duterte has his own personal experience in Davao,” Mr. Laviña said in a television interview. “We were able to capture a bomber, a suspect in the bombing in Davao. He was an American. He was spirited away by the U.S. Embassy. I think that’s when the bad relations started.”

The Philippines has long been the United States’ closest ally in Southeast Asia. The two nations have a mutual defense pact, and the Philippines recently agreed to allow the Pentagon to station troops and weapons at bases in the country. For more than a decade, American forces have also trained and advised Philippine soldiers hunting the Abu Sayyaf, a gang of rebel kidnappers operating in the southern islands that recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State.

Davao City is the most populous city in the south, and a pair of bombings there killed 38 people in 2003. But Mr. Duterte, its mayor for the past 20 years, has long expressed skepticism about the American military presence. In 2013, he said he had blocked an American proposal to base drones at Davao City’s old airport, citing his concerns about the Meiring case.

“I do not want it,” he was quoted saying in local news media. “I do not want trouble and killings. They will only add to the problem.”

Aides to Mr. Duterte did not respond to requests for comment. But in the interview in which he discussed the case last year, Mr. Duterte said that his “hatred” for the United States was a “personal” sentiment that he could set aside in the national interest. He also said, though, that his anger over the Meiring case had not diminished.

A spokesman for the United States Embassy, Kurt Hoyer, said it would have no comment on the drone proposal, the Meiring affair, or how the episode might affect relations with the incoming president. He said an embassy press statement in 2002 was the final word on the case, but was unable to provide it.

In the statement, according to published reports, the embassy acknowledged that F.B.I. agents went to the Evergreen Hotel to investigate the explosion but “categorically” denied that the agency “had any role in Mr. Meiring’s departure.”

The Meiring affair has long been the subject of conspiracy theories in the Philippines. Much remains unexplained, including why there were explosives in Mr. Meiring’s room and who mounted the operation that helped him escape.

“Why should the U.S. take him out of the country? That’s the puzzle,” said a former high-ranking Philippine intelligence official who declined to be identified because he was not directly involved in the case.

According to news reports, Mr. Meiring had been going to Davao City on the island of Mindanao for many years, usually staying in the same suite at the Evergreen. He had documents allowing him to hunt for treasure — which was believed to have been left by occupying Japanese forces during World War II — and an identity card allowing him to travel in territory held by separatist Islamic rebels.

At the time, the southern Philippines was plagued by armed conflict with the rebels and occasional bombings, including a blast a month earlier that killed 15 people in the city of General Santos, about 90 miles south of Davao City.

When the police first questioned Mr. Meiring about the explosion at the Evergreen, he said someone had thrown a grenade into his room. But investigators quickly found conclusive evidence that the blast was caused by explosives in his room, according to the police file, including the remains of two 6-volt batteries, an electric blasting cap and a circuit board.

Doctors amputated one of Mr. Meiring’s legs, but he was taken from the hospital and flown from Davao by charter plane, the police said at the time. He received medical treatment in Manila and left the country soon after.

Witnesses said that the men who took him from the hospital displayed F.B.I. badges. The hospital’s owner told reporters that he agreed to release Mr. Meiring despite his injuries after American officials promised to issue a work visa for his daughter, a nurse.

Mr. Meiring returned to the United States, where he also went by the family name Vande-Meer. He died in 2012 at 76, public records show, without ever telling his story publicly. His former wife, Angela, contacted by phone, declined to discuss his time in the Philippines.

A Davao City court official, who had not been informed of Mr. Meiring’s death, said there was still an outstanding warrant for his arrest on charges of illegal possession of explosives and reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property.

There has long been unsubstantiated speculation in the Philippines that Mr. Meiring was responsible for bombings in the turbulent region as part of a covert American operation aimed at gathering intelligence on the rebels or prompting the Philippine government to approve greater United States military assistance.

But a former C.I.A. official who served in the Philippines discounted the possibility that Mr. Meiring was a C.I.A. operative. While the former official was not familiar with details of the Meiring case, he said keeping explosives in his hotel room and joking about “Christ in Action” would be obvious violations of agency protocol.

Ramon Casiple, the executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, a nonprofit organization promoting democracy in the Philippines, said the burden would be on Washington to win Mr. Duterte’s trust, perhaps starting with an explanation of what happened at the Evergreen Hotel.

“He will try to improve relations with the U.S. but it is really more of the U.S. building relations with him,” Mr. Casiple said. “As far as he is concerned, the U.S. record in Mindanao is not that good.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 14, 2016, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Mysterious Blast in Philippines Shaped Presumptive Leader’s View of U.S.

-       The New York Times

 

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Philippine PDEA Seized ₱1.4-Billion Worth illegal drugs and 2 Labs with Taiwanese in South Manila

A PDEA agent inspects chemicals and equipment used in manufacturing illegal drugs during a raid in Pamplona 2, Las Piñas City on Tuesday night. JOVEN CAGANDE

Las Piñas raid nets ₱1.4-B shabu

Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested three Taiwanese nationals and seized more than ₱1.4 billion worth of shabu, chemicals and laboratory equipment at a clandestine drug laboratory in Las Piñas City and a warehouse in Parañaque on Tuesday night 5^th July 2016.

Wilkins Villanueva, director of the PDEA National Capital Region Office, identified the three arrested suspects as Shi Ming Tsai, Kuo Chuan Cheng and Chun Ming Lin.

Tsai and Cheng, both suspected chemists, were arrested in a house that was turned into a shabu laboratory in Barangay Pamplona Dos in Las Piñas at around 6 p.m. after the PDEA agents enforced a search warrant issued by Judge Fernando Sagun of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98.

Around 49 kilos of shabu, placed inside pails, 298 kilos of suspected liquid methamphetamine and laboratory equipment were seized inside the house.

Newly appointed PDEA chief Isidro Lapeña joined the operation in Las Piñas.

After the successful operation, PDEA agents also dismantled a shabu storage facility located at BF Homes, Parañaque City at around 7:30 p.m.

Lin was arrested inside the warehouse where 10 kilos of suspected shabu and around 200 kilos of suspected ephedrine were found.

Villanueva said ephedrine, an ingredient in the making of shabu, was stored in Parañaque and brought to the house in Las Piñas for processing into shabu crystals.

The manufactured drugs would then be brought to the Parañaque warehouse for storage before distribution to dealers in Metro Manila and Central Luzon, he added.

Villanueva said PDEA agents conducted surveillance operations in the area for about a month before the raid.

Investigators said a Taiwanese family has been renting the house in Las Piñas.

13 suspected pushers killed

Eight suspected drug pushers were gunned down last Tuesday and Wednesday during alleged shootouts with policemen in various parts of the country while unidentified suspects killed seven more alleged pushers.

Media reports showed that there were about 85 people killed in drug-related police operations from May 10 to July 6. Of the 85 slain suspects, 31 were shot dead from July 1 to 6 or during the first six days of the Duterte administration.

Caloocan City policemen shot dead yesterday two alleged drug pushers during separate encounters.

Investigators said policemen responded to a call through Emergency Hotline 117 that three men were suspiciously roaming around Barangay 59 at 3 a.m.

The police spotted suspect Michael Liwanag and his two companions along R. David Street and when the officers approached them, the trio ran toward a nearby house owned by Norayda Coloma.

Liwanag entered the house and fired gunshots at the policemen who fired back and killed the suspect.

Another suspected pusher, Roberto Dominguez, was killed last Tuesday night by policemen investigating the illegal drug trade along Burgos Street in Barangay 15.

Initial police report showed that policemen spotted Dominguez along Burgos Street and tried to question him.

Dominguez, however, fled and ran to a house and shot at the police officers.

The policemen fired back, killing the suspect who yielded a caliber .38 revolver, five small plastic bags of shabu and drug paraphernalia.

Two suspected drug pushers were shot dead by police authorities in separate encounters in Camarines Norte and Legazpi City last Tuesday.

Supt. Wilmor Halamani, Daet police chief, said an undercover policeman shot dead suspect Christian Roy during a buy-bust operation in Barangay Magang.

In Legazpi City, Michael Almayda was shot dead after a shootout with police during another entrapment operation in Purok 3 Barangay 42 in Legazpi City.

Almayda's three companions, identified as Edgardo Almayda, Nino Almayda and Norby Alzaga, were arrested.

Seized from the suspects were 12 plastic bags of shabu and a caliber .38 revolver.

Manila policemen killed a drug pusher that also snatched cell phones in San Andres, Manila.

Police officer 3 John Teddy Siguen, who was investigating cellphone robbery cases, shot dead Conrado Beroña III in his house at 2323 Tenorio Street in San Andres last Tuesday.

Investigators recovered nine sachets of suspected shabu from the suspect's house.

Siquen said they were following up two cellphone robberies and tracked down the suspect's location through the global positioning system (GPS) in one of the stolen phones.

Policemen went to Berona's house but the suspect fired at the policemen, who fired back and killed the suspect.

Two persons were killed in separate shootouts during anti-illegal drug operations by the Quezon City police yesterday and Tuesday.

Artemio Aclan was gunned down along Algao St., Barangay Tatalon at around 11:30 a.m. while police were conducting Oplan Kapak (Katok Pakiusap) on Tuesday.

Investigation disclosed that police spotted Aclan while they were scouring the area for drug dependents.

Sensing the presence of operatives, Aclan reportedly ran to his house, got his handgun and fired at the police officers.

He was killed after a brief firefight with police. A improvised caliber .38 revolver and 12 sachets of shabu were recovered from Aclan's house.

A still unidentified drug suspect was killed in a shootout along Feliciano Street in Barangay Pasong Putik at around 2:30 a.m. yesterday.

The suspect, described by police as around 20-25 years old and 5'3" in height, was shot dead while his cohort was able to elude arrest.

Police reportedly responded to a tip about illegal drug activities in the area when they saw two men on their motorcycles.

When police officers approached the suspects, the two suddenly drew their handguns and fired at the lawmen.

This led to a brief firefight, resulting in the death of one of the suspects while the other escaped.

In Dagupan City, a suspected drug dealer was shot dead in a buy-bust operation Tuesday night in Barangay Tebeng.

Dagupan police Supt. Christopher Abrahano said Oscar Abella, who was included in the watch list of the Barangay Anti Drug Abuse Council of Barangay Pantal, pulled out a gun and fired at the police undercover agent who fired back.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead Marvin Toston, a suspected pusher, at the corner of Gabriel and Claudio streets in Baclaran, Parañaque City yesterday.

In Nueva Ecija, five suspected drug pushers were killed by unidentified men in the past four days, police said.

Senior Supt. Manuel Cornel, provincial police director, said the slain suspects were identified as Mirasol Lavapie Ramos of Talavera town, Jessie Junarez of San Antonio town, Daniel Javier of San Leonardo, Raffy Francisco of Sto. Domingo and a certain Bernie of San Jose City.

A lone gunman shot dead Ramos in a barbecue stand in Talavera.

Police said five men took Junarez from his house last Wednesday in San Antonio. The victim was later found dead.

In San Jose City, Police Officer 1 Danilo Lorilla Jr. shot dead the suspect identified only as Bernie.

Bernie alleged shot at Lorilla who fired back and killed the suspect.

Police said Javier was found dead in San Leonardo town while the body of Francisco was recovered in Sto. Domingo.

In Cagayan, Senior Insp. Antonio Palattao, police chief of Allacapan town, said an unidentified gunman shot dead suspected drug pusher Norman Tacal during a drinking session in Barangay San Juan last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 217 drug pushers and users surrendered to authorities in Valenzuela City since July 1, while 75 other professed addicts yielded in Mandaluyong City. - With Perseus Echeminada, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ghio Ong, Mike Frialde, Francis Elevado, Celso Amo, Raymund Catindig, Eva Visperas - philSTAR

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