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By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s informers and witnesses are now facing the prospects of reprisals from drug suspects who are being released from local prisons one by one.

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PDEA regional director Wilkins Villanueva said this even as he expressed alarm over the dismissal of drug cases in the city as a result of the January fire at the Hall of Justice that destroyed piles of legal documents and vital evidence against the suspects.

Some 100 drug cases have so far been dismissed by the courts since the January fire over the failure to reconstitute the cases and due to the absence of evidence, according to city prosecutor Fidel Macauyag. City police director Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera said the police has been receiving information of drug cases being dismissed at least every week.

Villanueva said the deluge of drug suspects from the prisons to the city streets was posing as a “big threat” to PDEA “assets” (informers) and those who agreed to serve as witnesses in court.

He said the PDEA advised the informers and the witnesses to be “extra careful” because of the likelihood of “resbak” (reprisals).

The informers, he said, would need security support from the PDEA.

Villanueva said the drug case dismissals were a big setback in the PDEA anti-drug campaign in the region. He said he was stunned, and found it “unbelievable” until now.

He said the PDEA worked and did its best to reconstitute the cases by providing the prosecutors with the records of the drug cases.

Meanwhile, police regional  director Chief Supt. Lyndel Desquitado said authorities would need to move on despite the demoralization the dismissal of cases have caused.

Desquitado said there was nothing law enforcers could do because the Hall of Justice fire destroyed vital evidence.

He said the police would closely keep an eye of the released suspects and pounce on them the moment they commit a crime.

“Dakpon  gyud nato sila pag-usab kon mobalik sila sa ilang  da-otang buhat pagbaligya sa illegal  drugs,” Desquitado said.

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