By Rey E. Requejo

A fact-finding committee has found “procedural lapses” in the entrapment operations conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency against three suspects known as “Alabang Boys.”

A panel member, retired Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Raoul Victorino, expressed concern over the “deviation” made by the PDEA after one of its agents, Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino, admitted that the money used in the sting operation was not sprinkled with ultra-violet powder.

Marking the money with ultra-violet powder is one of the requirements in a buy-bust, Victorino stressed.

But Marcelino justified the deviation from the procedure, saying that the practice of marking the money with ultra-violet powder proved unproductive in previous buy-bust operations.

According to Marcelino, his team was advised by PDEA lawyers to photocopy the bills amounting to P52,000 using a piece of genuine P500 and P100.

The marked money was used to buy 72 tablets of Ecstacy, a hallucination-inducing drug, from suspect Richard Brodett after a deal was set by another suspect Jorge Joseph to show PDEA agents proof that Brodett was “his supplier,” Marcelino said.

Marcelino and PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago asserted that their agents did not commit irregularities in the sting operations against the Alabang Boys.

The three-member panel also heard the testimonies of PDEA intelligence agents Louie Valdez and Jigger Juniller.

Valdez posed as buyer of valium and cocaine from the third drug suspect Joseph Tecson in a deal that was arranged by Joseph, while Juniller was involved in the drug deal between Joseph and Brodett.

Marcelino disclosed that “Oplan Pyramid” was hatched to neutralize dealers of the drug, ecstacy.

He claimed that Joseph was among those included in the PDEA list of targets. When Joseph was arrested, he reportedly volunteered information that led to the arrest of Brodett and Tecson in exchange for his release.

Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, panel chairman, also asked why PDEA failed to get the necessary search warrants considering their admission that they had been working on the case for almost three months.

Aquino, dean of the San Beda College of Law, also questioned why Marcelino did not move to entrap the person who tried to bribe him.

The PDEA agents also denied mauling Brodett, but Marcelino admitted seeing blood on Brodett’s shirt and bruises on his face when he first appeared in his office. According to him, this prompted him to tell Brodett to wash his face and change his clothes.

His agents told Marcelino that Brodett’s bruises were self-inflicted.

Agent Juniller also denied the occurrence of a shooting incident when they arrested Brodett inside the posh Ayala Alabang village last September.

The fact-finding panel also noted discrepancies in the testimonies of the agents yesterday and the sworn affidavits they submitted to the panel.