DON'T APPOINT COPS WITH DRUG LINKS, EBDANE URGED

Former civilian narcotics agent Mary Ong expressed disappointment yesterday
over the recent appointment to sensitive positions of certain police
officials she has accused of involvement in illegal drugs and direct bribery.

Ong, also known as "Rosebud," appealed to Philippine National Police (PNP)
chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to consider a recent move by
the Office of the Ombudsman to formally file the charges with the
Sandiganbayan against the 13 policemen, including Director Reynaldo Acop,
she implicated in the case.

"I am so frustrated that these officers are assigned to sensitive posts,"
Ong said in an interview over the weekend, citing in particular Senior
Superintendent Francisco Villaroman who was assigned to the PNP Directorate
for Personnel and Resource Management (DPRM).

Ong said Villaroman was tasked by DPRM chief Director Florencio Fianza to
handle matters pertaining to foreign trips of police officials. "There were
reports that Villaroman deleted from the list of foreign grant recipients
the names of officers who investigated him in the various complaints I
filed before the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group ((CIDG)," Ong said.

Acop and Villaroman were among the respondents in the direct bribery case
after they ignored court summons for them to testify in the trial of four
alleged members of a Hong Kong drug syndicate arrested by Acop's men in La
Loma, Quezon City in December 1998.

Acop opted to step down from his post after the ouster of then PNP chief
now Sen. Panfilo Lacson following the 2001 EDSA II revolution that toppled
the Estrada administration.

Ong claimed that failure of Acop and his men to testify at the hearings
resulted in the dismissal of the case against the four suspects by the
Pasay City Regional Trial Court.

The suspects were identified as Lu Shiao Min, Wang Jin Luan, Jin Piao Wang
Chua and Li Jiaz Hu.

Ong said that the policemen, among them her alleged former lover Senior
Superintendent John Campos, did not show interest in pursuing the case
against the Chinese in exchange for P3 million and 10 kilos of shabu.

Apart from the dismissal of the charges, the four Chinese also demanded the
return of a "blue book" that contained their syndicate's uncollected debts
of over P385 million.

After almost 11 months of preliminary investigation, the Ombudsman finally
decided last Friday to lodge direct bribery charges against Acop and his
men before the anti-graft court.

Acop and Villaroman welcomed the filing of the complaint, saying it would
provide them the opportunity to clear their names before the proper forum.

Ebdane hinted earlier at a second wave of reshuffle of ranking police
officials to strengthen further the Arroyo administration's anti-crime
campaign.

"We will have a new team that will respond to situations, a new team that
will toe the line and will have focus on the present PNP (objectives) as
mandated by the President," Ebdane said.