Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), has ordered a thorough investigation to find out why the drug case filed against Guia Gomez Castro before a Quezon City Regional Trial Court was dismissed in 2009.
What he wants to find out, according to Eleazar, was if the policemen who filed the case or those who served as witnesses against Castro deliberately sabotaged the drug case to ensure her acquittal.
“We want to identify all the policemen who conducted the operation, how the case was filed and who served as witnesses on this case,” said Eleazar.
“We will also get the court records on this particular case because from there, we would be able to find out if there was sabotage in the handling of this case,” he added.
Eleazar said he already tasked the NCRPO intelligence unit, drug enforcement unit and the legal service to work together to probe the case.
The case against Castro, tagged as Metro Manila’s drug queen, was docketed as Q-01-105406-08 before a Quezon City Regional Court for violation of Section 15 and 16 of Republic Act 6425.
Section 15 refers to Sale, Administration, Dispensation, Delivery, Transportation and Distribution of Regulated Drugs while Secrion 16 refers to Possession or Use of Regulated Drugs.
An arrest warrant was issued against Castro on March 1, 2002, but the case was dismissed in 2009.
“We want to know what happened because if this drug queen has links with ninja cops, then it is highly possible that the case was sabotaged in her favor,” said Eleazar.
He then disclosed a modus of erring cops before that they would deliberately file a weak case or policemen serving as witnesses would purposely snub the hearing to pave way for the dismissal of the case.
In exchange, the erring cops would be paid with huge sum of money.
“We have reasons that this modus was also used in favor of the drug queen. By getting the court records, we can also find out who could be held liable and we assure that we will take action,” said Eleazar.
Castro was allegedly buying confiscated shabu from erring cops.
Earlier, the NCRPO has discovered three arrest warrants issued against Castro, two for violation of the Bouncing Checks Law and the third was the illegal drugs related.
Eleazar said that they will still verify the three arrest warrants against Castro.
During the verification, it was found out that the two cases on bouncing check law are one and the same while the illegal drugs was dismissed.
But Eleazar was quick to clarify that they still have legal ground to arrest Castro once she comes back from abroad.
“The arrest warrant in connection with the bouncing check is still valid so we have legal grounds to arrest her,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar has initiated the coalition of the PDEA NCR, NCRPO, National Bureau of Investigation NCR and the military’s Joint Task Force NCR to run after illegal drugs syndicates and their cohorts in Metro Manila.
Based on the sharing of information, Castro was found to have already fled to the United States from Canada.
Castro left the country last month via plane to Bangkok, Thailand before going to Canada.
“Our latest monitoring is that she is in America. This is a proof that we are focusing on her, that she is our priority target,” said Eleazar.
“So it is better for her to just surrender, she has no way out but surrender,” he added. (Aaron Recuenco)
