The facts re June 5 cocaine recovery in Eastern Samar

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
June 10, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Director Antonio Pagatpat of the National Bureau of Investigation informed that his agency was not part of the PASG operations that unearthed 17 kilos of cocaine bricks in three different areas of Easter Samar province.

The clarification was made by Director Pagatpat in reaction to local newspaper reports mentioning the NBI as part of the special operations and “took over and helped out in the shipping (of cocaine) in Manila.”

The good NBI 8 Director disclosed that he only came to know about the operations when the PASG team dropped by his office on Sunday, June 7 to ask him to account for the recovered items.

The PASG team returned to Manila in the early morning of Monday together with the recovered items. An NBI agent from the Central Office came to Tacloban to provide security, Director Pagatpat said.

Contrary to the earlier reports that the Civil Aviation Security in Tacloban denied the shipment, thus the recovered items were transported to Manila by land or by water.

The post operation report of the PASG team composed of SPO1 Tito Q. Macatugob, Atty. Lilibeth A. Llagas and PASG civilian agent Hilario Yalong stated that triggered by the nationwide news on the alleged cocaine packs thrown at the waters of Eastern Samar, the PASG started to gather information as to how the unrecovered packs of cocaine may be discovered. Contacting individuals in the area led the PASG to an informant claiming personal knowledge of some places where the cocaine packs were allegedly being hidden.

Armed with a mission order signed by PASG Head, Secretary Antonio A. Villar, Jr., the PASG team arrived in Tacloban City at 4:30 in the afternoon of June 5. The team proceeded to Mercedes, Eastern Samar and coordinated with the Mercedes Police Station at 8:25 in the evening. It was then, that the team learned that there was no office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Eastern Samar.

The team then coordinated with the “informant” for the first target area. Several persons were sent to Barangay Hagnayan, Salcedo town to dig up the cocaine bricks in the area pinpointed by the informant. The team allegedly remained at Mercedes town.

The persons came back at 11:00 o’clock in the evening, turning over an orange Hersheys bag containing eleven (11) packs of cocaine bricks packed in plastics.

The team immediately reported the recovery to the Chief of PASG Special Operations Group who thereafter relayed and coordinated with the Dangerous Drugs Board and the PDEA.

At dawn of June 6, the Team coordinated again with the informant for the second target area turned out to be at Barangay Minanod in Llorente town. Again, some men were sent to the area to dig up the buried cocaine there.

While the recovery operation in Llorente was ongoing, the informant pinpointed the third and last target area at Sitio Jaklagan, Barangay Buyayawon in Mercedes town. Several persons were also sent to the place.

At 8:45 in the morning of June 6, a total of six (6) packs of cocaine in brick form, one pack of which is slightly damaged exposing the white crystalline substance which appeared to be cocaine, were delivered to the team. Three packs were recovered at Llorente while the other three packs were recovered from Mercedes.

The 17 packs of what appeared to be cocaine bricks which were recovered by the PASG team were brought to the PNP Mercedes Station where initial inventory and photograph-taking were made in the presence of Mercedes Barangay Chairwoman Josefina Macatugob, Mercedes PNP Chief Inspector Marino Estonio, and policemen SPO2 Julio Quilbio and PO1 Luis Ablay, Jr. There was no media representative known in the area. There was no DOJ representative who could be contacted considering that it was a Sunday.

The PASG team received instructions from PASG officials in Manila to take the first flight the following day, Monday, to Manila and to turn over the recovered cargoes directly to the Dangerous Drugs Board and the PDEA main offices in Quezon City considering earlier coordination with said offices.

The PASG team was likewise informed that the recovered items were already coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Illegal Drugs and that two NBI Agents will be sent to Tacloban to assist the team’s travel from Tacloban to Manila.

After the PNP Mercedes chief reported the recovery of cocaine to the PNP Provincial Director of Eastern Samar, the team was escorted by Mercedes and Quinapondan PNP to Tacloban using a patrol vehicle of the Mercedes PNP.

The team and the police escorts then proceeded to the NBI Region 8 Office to turn-over the physical custody of the recovered items for safekeeping until the PASG team’s flight. The recovered items were sealed and signed by Mercedes PNP Station chief, S1 Cyrus Alusan and a media representative in the person of Miriam Desacada of the Philippine Star. No DOJ representative was contacted.