The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency strongly debunked claims of suspects that they were operatives of the agency during a broad daylight robbery of a drug store in Dumaguete Monday.

PDEA provincial director Rayford Yap said it was unfortunate that the name of the agency was dragged into the picture, but, stressed that no robber in his right mind would identify himself or herself as the culprit and be convicted and imprisoned later.

Yap said that only two female operatives are left in Dumaguete, most of them are in Cebu for a scheduled hearing on drugs cases filed in the courts.

He said that one of the tasks of PDEA is to monitor drug stores especially in the sale of dangerous drugs that require yellow prescriptions from accredited doctors. They have to monitor if drugs bought with yellow prescriptions are recorded by the drugstores because, if not, they can be likened to pushers selling shabu.

Yap raised the possibility that their name was dragged into the case because of the agency’s massive campaign against illegal drugs.

The Dumaguete City police, meanwhile, is digging into the broad daylight robbery with footages of the suspects caught on CCTV cameras.

City PNP chief PSupt Crisaleo Tolentino, however, said the images are too dark, but the blue guard had a good look at one of the suspects when he was disarmed. One of the employees was able to call for police assistance by slipping through the back door.

Initial investigations showed that the drugstore is opened on a 24-hour basis, with drinking sessions at the premises, that the culprits could have been taken advantage of in casing their target.*JG

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