The anti-illegal drugs campaign of the government has reached another milestone recently when Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos presented in a news conference a CCTV footage showing several police officers and operatives transferring packages of alleged “shabu” to another vehicle during a raid conducted which yielded an approximate P6.7 billion worth of illegal drugs.

The police operation happened in October last year inside the premises of Wealth and Personal Development Inc (WPDLI) in Tondo, Manila which is owned by dismissed Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., an intelligence officer at the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (DEG). A total of 990 kilos of crystal meth was inventoried but before the actual accounting took place a total of 42 kilograms of shabu were smuggled by police officers to a separate vehicle which was later left abandoned and recovered with the help of a CCTV footage of the operation.

Abalos asked 10 high ranking officers of the police to go on leave pending an investigation by the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM). The investigation has resulted to the disarming of 49 members of the PNP DEG after having been found to have committed criminal and administrative liabilities. Of the 49, No less than DEG’s former director Police Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo was cited along with two colonels, three lieutenant colonels, one major and five lieutenants.

Secretary Abalos who made mention of a cover-up was warned by outgoing PNP Chief General Rodolfo Azurin Jr. not to be influenced by people who know nothing about the illegal drug operation last year. The bust was to be PNP’s biggest since then. Understandably as it happened during Azurin’s reign on the police force, he wanted to preserve the reputation as such.

While Azurin has a point, without the theories and political will on the part of Abalos to expose the black-ops of the police, those scalawags would remain in the force and become more powerful making any anti-ilegal drugs campaign of the government an exercise in futility and eventually turn it into a circus. It is clear that there are still people inside the police force and even in the government service who are involved in the illegal drug trade many of whom are not into selling but merely into protecting those who operate.

In the meantime, if General Azurin is wanting of a legacy as he steps down the reign of the police force, he better make sure that all those who were identified in the illegal operation be made to face trial and if convicted, incarcerated to serve not as an example but a show of a real thrust and resolve to end the illegal drug trade in the country.