Senior Inspector Joemarie Occeño, deputy director of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Western Visayas, yesterday told convicted drug peddler Sammy Fajardo to learn from his mistakes and stop making allegations against anti-drug operatives.

Showing the court decision that meted Fajardo a life imprisonment jail term, Occeño said the drug pusher's allegations contradict his statements during the trial.

On Wednesday, Fajardo claimed that Bacolod City Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit and PDEA members had been having illegal connections with him from 2002 until his arrest in October 2005.

He said he decided to expose the supposed irregularities after the officers who promised to help him in his case failed to do so.

DEU chief, SPO4 Ernesto Gonzales and operative PO3 Rolando Malate, who were named by Fajardo along with SPO2 Nelson Grijaldo as the officers who supplied him with shabu seized from operations to sell, have both denied Fajardo's accusations.

Gonzales said he used to visit Fajardo at the jail but stopped after the drug pusher started asking for money and clothing.

The decision, penned by Regional Trial Court Branch 47 Judge Edgar Garvilles, shows that Fajardo told the court that Occeño gave him P15,000 in cash to test buy from a suspected shabu pusher on October 13, 2005.

Occeño, however, said that, although he has been monitoring Fajardo's activities, he had not met him until his arrest on October 21, 2005 by PDEA officers led by agency regional director Supt. Rolen Balquin.

He added that, had he indeed met Fajardo, it could have been impossible to entrust that amount of money to him without assigning an operative to accompany him.

The court discredited Fajardo's testimonies during the trial, calling them “preposterous.”

Occeño also said that if Fajardo had indeed been under the protection of anti-drug operatives before, he could have named the officers before the trial so the PDEA would filed charges against them, making him a star witness.

In effect, Occeño said, Fajardo's court statements and his allegations in the television interview, clearly contradict each other, proving he is just “creating a scenario.”

Occeño said he learned from a reporter, whom he refused to identify, that Fajardo is making up the story against him and the other officers so he could testify for a murder case involving a police officer.

Occeño said Fajardo and the people behind him, are hoping that the officers he named will file charges against him so his transfer to the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City will be delayed and he can testify for the law enforcer in court later.

But Occeño said, he will not file charges against Fajardo because he already has a reclusion perpetua sentence.*PP

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