A FORMER agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency who was removed because of alleged irregularities has accused Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and PDEA chief Arturo Cacdac Jr. of protecting drug syndicates.
Cacdac immediately denied the former agent’s accusation.
“He issued an affidavit saying he was asked to plant evidence, to produce evidence of the alleged shabu laboratory. Now during the hearing of the Chinese who was arrested in San Fernando, Pampanga, when I wasn’t around, he said that was the evidence that was planted, but in the affidavit of arrest, he said it was a buy-bust operation,” Cacdac said in Filipino in an interview on GMA News TV.
He said Jonathan Morales was removed from the agency in 2013 because of “grave misconduct, dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”
Morales, on the other hand, said the PDEA has a list of so many political personalities who were protecting the drug syndicates.
These included senators, Cabinet secretaries, governors, mayors, police, and NBI and PDEA officials, he said.
He recalled that in July 2013, Ochoa invited him to Malacañang where he made a presentation about Chinese drug syndicates on the PDEA’s list.
These groups, he said, operated under the guise of garment businesses and casinos.
Morales said he became suspicious when Cacdac did not order any operation against the identified syndicates.
The Palace declined to comment on the allegations made against Ochoa and Cacdac.
“It is difficult to make a comment since I have not read the background,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. With Sandy Araneta
