THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) yesterday kept mum over the murder and other charges filed against them by the widow of the widow of a former town administrator of Claveria, Misamis Oriental.
But PDEA regional director Adrian Albarino and his subordinates were unfazed and were ready to face their accuser in court, said a PDEA agent known among reporters for his assumed name “Ben Calibre.”
Calibre said they were not worried with the string of charges filed with the Office of the Ombudsman on Friday by Leorupee Barros.
Barros’s husband Benildo, a former Claveria municipal administrator, was killed in what the PDEA and police claimed to be an anti-drug operation in 2016. Ms. Barros however said her husband was a victim of a rubout, and that authorities barged into their farmhouse in Sitio Dimagooc, Barangay Sta. Cruz, Claveria, and shot her husband while he was in bed in the morning of Aug. 11, 2016.
She alleged that the law enforcers planted evidence–illegal drugs, firearms and a grenade–against her husband.
One of her lawyers, Rey Raagas, said the shooting death took place shortly after the former town administrator threatened to expose alleged corruption in the town police.
Ms. Barros also included Claveria’s police head, Chief Insp. Salvador Ruzgal Castillon, in her complaint.
Calibre said Albarino has opted not to issue comments until the PDEA gets hold of an official copy of Barros’s complaint.
“Kinahanglan baya gyud mi motubag ana, pero wala pa man gud mi makadawat sa formal complaint,” said Calibre, adding that Albarino would answer the charges at the proper time.(nitz arancon)
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