The Makabayan bloc filed a resolution on November 10 Wednesday urging the House of Representatives Dangerous Drugs Committee on to probe the drug raid of a beach party in Davao de Oro whether there was a cover up of Mayor Sara Duterte’s former information officer and other personalities.
The progressive bloc filed House Resolution 2342, raising issue that there is an alleged cover-up as 17 persons who were in the party are detained at the National Bureau of Investigation regional office in Davao City, while former Davao City Information Officer Jefry Tupas and others who attended the party were set free.
They said there is double standard in the Duterte administration’s ‘war on drugs’ campaign in this matter.
“The administration’s anti-drug campaign reeks of double standard or of selective justice, where alleged ringleaders of drug cartels, big-time drug lords, high-value personalities and their alleged protectors in the government have escaped the anti-drug campaign, while thousands of suspected small-fry dealers and victim-users have been targeted, and worst, killed. This war on drugs has already claimed the lives of innocent civilians mostly from poor families including minors and youth,” the bloc’s resolution said.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) announced on Wednesday that they are conducting its own probe of its agents involved in the raid. Its regional head Aileen Lovitos said the raid targeted personalities that they had placed under surveillance for peddling illegal drugs.
Tupas had admitted in a statement that he was in the party held November 6 in a resort in Pindasan, Mabini, Davao de Oro, but left early before the raid took place.
The detained suspects revealed in a series of video interviews in Newsline Philippines said agents first called out for Jefry Tupas when they were all sprawled on the ground. They found out Tupas and her boyfriend were set free, and the agents presented the illegal drugs worth P1.5 million in their possessions.
The suspects said there were around 50 guests in that event, and a clip presented by Newsline showed several people in that party.
They questioned why they were the only ones arrested while others were gone.
Tupas said the party was a by-invitation event, which included managers in the BPO industry in Davao. The detained suspects added that there were doctors and personalities from Manila who were at the beach party.
They said drinks were provided at the start of the party which they doubt were already spiked with liquid drugs.
