The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs on Wednesday cited two agents of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group in contempt over “lying and causing confusion to the panel” during the discussion on the issue of sneaking out a portion of the seized 990 kilos of illegal drugs.

Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, who presided over the committee’s inquiry on the alleged practice of paying informants or assets 30 percent of confiscated illegal drugs, cited in contempt Police Senior M/Sgt. Jerwin Rebosora and Police M/Sgt. Lorenzo Catarata, who were both presenting themselves as resource persons at the hearing.

“They are cited in contempt and hereby detained in the premises of the Senate,” De la Rosa said.

Rebosora and Carata were among the anti-narcotics operatives who confiscated some 990 kilos of shabu worth about P6.7 billion in Tondo, Manila on 8 October 2022 from a drug pusher, which also led to the arrest of Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr. amid recovering documents that revealed his implication to the illegal drug transactions.

They become the meat of the inquiry after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency brought up the contents of CCTV footage throughout the buy-bust operation.

Officials said a splice of CCTV footage showed that the respondents along with M/Sgt. Roman Jimenez sneaked out some 42 kilos worth P285.6 million from 990 kilos of seized shabu and loaded them in a white sedan after the raid.

PDEG Intelligence and Foreign Liaison Division head, Col. Rolando Portera revealed that Rebosora informed him that he will return himself 30 kilos of shabu at the headquarters.

De la Rosa was irked after Portera quoted Rebosora in his statement.

Portera said he ordered one of the officers of the day to escort the police sergeant to enter inside the headquarters. When they were outside, in front of Camp Crame in Quezon City, they found two bags containing shabu, but Rebosora was not there.

De la Rosa then urged the PNP to seriously investigate the matter and scrutinize further the involvement of other cops in the incident.

“If you will not take this seriously, nothing will happen to our anti-illegal drug campaign so please take this seriously. And please tell the PNP chief to resolve this case before his retirement,” said the senator.