THE killing of a police official last Sunday in a drug bust supports government claims on top law enforcers acting as protectors or dealers in the illegal drugs trade.
It was unfortunate Senior Insp. Raymond G. Hortezuela had to die Sunday in an exchange of gunfire with operatives out to arrest him. He could have aided in further investigations into the tentacles of the illegal drug business in the Visayas.
But police reports on his death said Hortezuela, who was assigned in Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office, attempted to shoot operatives out to arrest him. Hortezuela was believed to have been a protector of Central Visayas drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.
Hortezuela was a former deputy chief of the Guadalupe Police Station in Cebu City and was included in the list of drug personalities of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas. Diaz was killed in a police operation in Las Piñas City in 2016.
Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde said intelligence units continued to monitor Hortezuela even after he was moved from Cebu to Negros Oriental. Albayalde added that Hortezuela’s death was part of “internal cleansing” and he would not stop until the last erring officer is dismissed.
The attempt to arrest Hortezuela was an effort of elements from the Counter-Intelligence Task Force -Visayas, Mandaue City Police Office drug enforcement unit, and the Regional Intelligence Division in Central Visayas. It is the better strategy to target the big names in this illegal business than to go after users and small-time dealers.
Congested jails where the number of prisoners soared to three to five times the prisons’ capacities after government launched its war against illegal drugs should compel the police to review operations and directions.
They could target big personalities behind the drug trade and knock down the business by hitting them where it hurts most – the money. There are examples of how police organizations in other countries addressed the same problem. In Durham City in London, police decided not to prosecute low level drug dealers but to let them free on condition they undergo rehabilitation.
This way, police said, they could go after bigger criminal gangs running the drugs trade. The new scheme, started in November last year, will cover users and those selling drugs to feed their habit. “Then we can focus on the really bad people,” Durham Police Chief Constable Mike Barton said in a report on www.independent.co.uk.
In Portugal, possession and consumption of illegal drugs were decriminalized and those arrested were given a warning, a fine or were told to show up at a center for treatment. This approach, reports said, helped stabilize the country’s drug crisis and allowed law enforcers to target big players.
Our local police should also focus on the “really bad people” and ensure the most effective way to care for the users.