DEMOLISHING THE EVIDENCE IN PASIG?

By The Way

No matter how one looks at it, the almost obscene haste with which
Pasig Mayor Vicente Eusebio and more than a hundred of his men
demolished the 64 shanties which had been found to be shabu-serving
"restaurants" and illegal-drug outlets - a veritable one-stop-shop and
supermarket of shabu and M.J. - looks very suspicious.

The super-tiangge of shabu and deadly drugs had been operating for
more than two years just half a kilometer from the Pasig City Hall.
Why didn't Hizzoner the Mayor and his merry men pounce on this
squatter warren of crime then and flatten the racket?

Only after a Police team led by Police Director Marcelo S. Ele Jr. of
the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) barged
into the "Tiangge ng Shabu" located along F. Soriano St., Barangay
Sto. Tomas, did the Mayor and his Councilmen begin fuming and snorting
in anger (against the drug-dealers, of course) - then hasten to
destroy the shanties using crowbars, hammers, saws, and a payloader.

In doing so, Eusebio's wreckers also destroyed much of the physical
evidence the area had been utilized as a drug-dispensing and "users"
centers.

The police had hauled off a total of 319 drug pushers and users (54 of
them minors), so the place was mostly deserted. Eusebio's excuse is
that he wanted the 600-meter area razed so the drug-pushers could not
sneak back in. Why on earth would they do that?

Demolished by the army of the Pasig City Hall's wreckers were shanties
still littered with pieces of aluminum foil, tooters and lighters, and
markings on the plywood walls which might have been ocularly inspected
by prosecutors and judges to confirm that the outlets had really been
places where addicts could rent or buy sniffing paraphernalia.

Now, every marker or wall, or piece of abandoned paraphernalia is
gone. I'm not saying Mayor Eusebio gave his reckless order because
somehow he has links to the shabu kingpins, but his move was both
shocking and irresponsible - and, once again, suspicious.

One thing I know: This writer was with Philippine National Police
Chief and Director General Arturo C. Lomibao Wednesday night, and the
PNP Chief was both shocked and outraged at the demolition of that
squatter "shabu" compound.

Indeed, the AIDSOTF head, Police Director Ele, was surprised and
shocked - but while it may have hurt the case, he insists that the
case against the drug dealers can still be won.

The truth is that the Police have complained to the Department of
Justice and are awaiting DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzalez's opinion on
whether charges of interfering with a crime investigation or similar
accusations can be levelled at Mayor Eusebio and his City Council.

As for me, I await further developments. But what do you think?

According to the after-action report on the raid conducted last Friday
(February 10), each of the 64 shanties had "housed" two to three drug
dens. Several packs and sachets of shabu were seized, as well as four
firearms. There were two surveillance cameras and one TV monitor
found, along with digital weighing scales and assorted drug
paraphernalia.

Of the 257 adults subjected to drug testing, 145 had yielded positive
(125 males, 20 females). Seven minors yielded positive for MHCL
(shabu) and seven other minors for THC (Marijuana).

Among those arrested was one suspect, Elumer Subalisid, an alleged
right hand man of alias Dario Doe, the "maintainer and operator" of
the drug den.

The report seeks to give credit to other PNP units involved in the
operation, namely the PDEA, Special Action Force (SAF), TMG, LSS, CES,
HS, WCCD, DIDM and HSS. You'd think that with so many "units"
involved, that drug supermarket should have been discovered much sooner.

If you ask me, the Police were remiss, too, in not cordoning off the
64 squatter shanties, thus preventing any wreckers from "demolishing"
them or any evidence which might still be littered about.

Don't they watch those US crime movies? In every police or Federal
Bureau of Investigation flicker, the lawmen padlock each crime scene,
and put yellow tape around every compound warning: "Crime Scene under
Investigation - Do Not Enter," or words to that effect. Were our cops
saving on yellow tape? Or did they ever think of roping off the area?

We're so sloppy in our anti-crime methods, it's no wonder
international crime syndicates and their henchmen flock to our
archipelago when they think of expanding their operations, or utilize
some country as their transit center.