The Davao City Police Office (DCPO) admitted that several surrenderees and arrested drug suspects have reverted to their illegal ways.
Speaking in yesterday’s press briefing at the conference room of the Davao City Police Office, Col. Kirby John Kraft, said that it is the reason why they are intensifying their anti-drug campaign, including checkpoints with the Task Force Davao.
“It’s true that we have many drug surrenderees who returned to their previous illegal drug activity, but we are assuring that all of them will return to jail,” he said.
Kraft cited the plea bargaining procedure, which allows detainees to get out on reduced sentences. He said that they recorded 18 recidivists, but 16 of them were already rearrested. Unfortunately, two of them died in police operations.
But he said it is out of their hands as they will abide by the ruling of the courts, which determine if the suspect will be released or not. However, he said they are also consulted whether the suspect is a candidate for release.
Based on the DCPO records, since the start of the war on drugs, they arrested 3,800 drug suspects in the city. Of the total, 1,200 applied for plea bargaining agreement and 200 of them were approved.
On Sunday afternoon, two friends who were once jailed for a drug charge yielded almost a million worth of shabu and a 12-gauge shotgun when they were arrested in separate operations.
They were identified as Napoleon Atienza Cadayona Jr., 41, a resident of Milky Way Street, GSIS Subdivision, Barangay 74-A, and Alain Robinson Quesada, liaison officer, and a resident of Emerald Street, SM Village in Bangkal, Talomo District.
The total confiscated items from the two suspects weighed 62 grams, with an estimated street value of P992,000.
Lt. Col. Ronald Lao, the commander of the Talomo Police Station, said the suspects were previously arrested in January 2014 for violations of sections 5 and 11 of R.A 9165. They were released through a plea bargaining agreement last November 2018.