Rey Anthony H. Chiu
CORTES, Bohol, November 22 (PIA)—Complaints
about the processes in accosting drug personalities can be addressed by
the Camp Dagohoy based-Internal Affairs Service (IAS) Unit while the
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has its own unit based in Cebu.
Complaints should be filed in these offices
and not on social media, appealed Camp Dagohoy Community Relations Officer
SPO4 Quinciano Lopena and PDEA Agent and Provincial Head Ferdinand Kintanar at
the Kapihan sa PIA.
At the radio forum to commemorate drug awareness
week, both Lopena and Kintanar agreed that the public, especially the
families of concerned drug personalities focused in the operation, have
also rights that need to be heard.
But resorting to social media to air these may
not help much, and may in fact demoralize the police who are performing the
task, according to Lopena and Kintanar.
Apart from the police and the PDEA, other law
enforcement agencies like the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group
(CIDG), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) have been mandated to render support in the president’s war
against drugs.
PNP and PDEA IAS units are the ombudsman for the
police and the narcotics agents and are manned by competent
investigators.
President Rodrigo Duterte has already aired his
support for the law enforcement agencies tasked to implement anti-narcotics
operations and declared his order to eradicate the problem in the next
six months.
In Bohol, police officials have assured that
their jobs do not include killing criminals.
"Our job is to serve and
protect," stressed Police Superintendent Nicomedes Olaivar
during a police forum.
Those drug personalities killed during
legitimate police operations have yielded guns and decided to evade capture by
fighting it out with the police, Olaivar said.
The police have also the right to protect
themselves at all times, said Lopena at the Kapihan sa PIA.
Authorities have noted that complainants started
to air complaints over social media.
The move to file formal complaints against law
enforcement agencies is the most productive way to exact an investigation,
Lopena clarified. (rmn/rac/PIA-7/Bohol)