Immigration officers in all the international air and sea ports in the country were on the lookout for suspected drug queen Guia Gomez Castro who might arrive in the country anytime from Hong Kong.
READ: Narco-cops in two groups bared: ‘ninja liit, volt in’
Castro was the woman the Manila police district had accused of conspiring with rogue police officers to sell illegal drugs, a situation which prompted Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and police officers to point to what eventually had been described as “ninja cops” in the recycling of narcotics seized in drug raids.
Magalong and other officials concerned with the drugs issue have been invited to a Senate hearing Tuesday, Senator Richard Gordon said.
“We have summoned everyone,” said Gordon, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, in an interview on dzMM radio, heard nationwide.
The former CIDG chief confirmed the ‘agaw bato’ scheme and would name cops in drug recycling.
Gordon said Magalong, former chief of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, would reveal the names of “ninja cops” he already bared in an executive session at the Senate last week.
Gordon said: “I hope we learn new information from him to stop this problem.”
Magalong had first appeared at the Senate to testify on alleged corruption at the Bureau of Corrections, including a scheme where hospital passes were being sold to moneyed inmates.
At Camp Crame, PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde, commenting on the “ninja cops issue,” said the expose on the supposed drug queen did not come from them.
He said “If the expose on Guia Gomez Castro was indeed a diversionary tactic, the Philippine National Police has no hand in it since it was not even the PNP that floated the alleged Manila drug queen’s name in the media.”
“We did not name that. We were not the source of that moniker,” Albayalde told reporters on Saturday, responding to Gordon’s claim the drug queen expose was an attempt to divert attention from corrupt “ninja cops” who recycle seized drugs.
The initial information on the alleged drug queen came from Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Aaron Aquino.
Castro was already out of the country, according to authorities, even as they vowed the case buildup against her was already ongoing.
In the Senate, the chamber president Vicente Sotto III on Saturday defended the measure he proposed creating a new anti-drug body amid opposition from PDEA and Dangerous Drugs Board DDB.
Sotto’s bill seeks to establish the Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority (PRDEA) to replace the PDEA and DDB.
The PDEA and the DDB, however, opposed the creation of the PRDEA, claiming this would compromise the progress made in the anti-illegal drugs campaign.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Friday issued an immigration lookout bulletin order against Castro, directing the Bureau of Immigration to monitor her entry into and departure from the Philippines.
Castro left the country on Sept. 21 onboard a Cebu Pacific airlines to Hong Kong and might return to the Philippines anytime, the BI said.
Castro, an elected barangay chairwoman, was accused by police of buying illegal drugs that erring policemen allegedly confiscated from legitimate operations and “recycled” to be resold in the market. She has denied the allegations.
Should Castro choose to stay in Hong Kong, the Philippine government could cancel her passport and would be considered an undocumented in any country she would try to hide, the BI said.
The Justice department can also request the International police or interpol to monitor Castro after the issuance of an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order.
