AN informant yesterday told lawmakers that rewarding some police assets and tipsters with part of the seized illegal drugs has been the practice for the past 20 years.
The source confirmed to the House committee on dangerous drugs the revelation of Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Moro Virgilio Lazo, who earlier told the panel that some of the agency’s assets had once asked him for 30 percent of any seized illegal drugs as their rewards.
The asset of the two agencies admitted being given “basura,” street lingo for shabu, by anti-illegal drug operatives of the PNP and the PDEA every time they make a bust based on his tips. The amount varied from 30 percent of the haul to as much as 70 percent.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, vowed to unearth more evidence and name names in the succeeding hearings.
“The testimony of the asset confirmed what we have heard all this time. The illegal practice of giving substantial portions of the drugs seized now has a face. In due time, if evidence warrants, criminal charges will be filed,” said Barbers. “We will not stop until we have unmasked all these crooks in uniform who have doomed so many lives to live in luxury.”
