PDEA: Some tipsters prefer drugs as reward, not money

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Some informants of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) prefer to be rewarded in kind—specifically a cut of the illegal drugs that were seized based on their tip—instead of in cash, PDEA Director General Virgilio Moro Lazo told a House panel on Tuesday.

The revelation, which Lazo said was based on his experience in dealing with tipsters since taking over the PDEA in November, prompted the House dangerous drugs committee to approve a motion to look into the issue.

Lazo told the committee that he personally talked to some of the tipsters who had offered to give the agency “a job.” “The thing is, they said I don’t have to spend anything. They will do all the work, but they are asking for 30 percent of the actual seizures as their payment,” he said, adding that he told them that “as far as my administration is concerned, we are only to give them the monetary value through our rewards system.”Lazo said that he had also instructed PDEA agents that “if there are offers for operations to be launched or initiated, we will only give them the monetary value of their actions.”

“I do not allow the seizure or payment of drugs as their payment for their efforts,” he told the panel.

One of those tipsters, Lazo said upon questioning by House health committee chair Rep. Ciriaco Gato Jr., still worked for the agency. “We are still using him, but he knows already that he will be rewarded only with the monetary reward that PDEA can give,” he said.

Gato, however, said that it was “very dangerous” for the PDEA to keep using such a tipster in their operations.

“If he didn’t get the 30 percent commission, he might think of another way of getting a commission not necessarily through you, through PDEA, but from other means,” he added. According to Lazo, the PDEA can give only as much as P2 million to tipsters who provide information that lead to successful antinarcotics operations. The system of compensation, rewards and awards is provided for in Republic Act No. 9165, or the 2002 Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

For House dangerous drugs panel chair Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, Lazo’s remarks were a “revealing statement.”

“That is a very serious drug problem. If you have one kilo [of drugs] apprehended, 30 percent goes back, and the asset has links with the users and drug lords. So it can be sold back on the streets,” Barbers said.

The panel later approved a motion for the committee to conduct a motu proprio inquiry in aid of legislation.

“This is a very serious allegation. So that’s why the recycling of illegal drugs won’t stop because the assets who give information to arrest drug lords and sellers are being rewarded not with monetary value, but of items that are seized and apprehended. So they will be rewarded with a 30 percent share of the [drugs]. Assets will now sell it back to the streets. So there’s really a need to investigate this said issue,” Barbers said.

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