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Pursuant to the powers vested in it by Section 36(a) of R.A. No. 6425, as amended, the DDB hereby prescribes the following regulations that shall govern the conduct of the administrative investigations of drug establishments found violating the provisions of the said Act and other persons who are found to have knowingly participated in, or consented to, tolerated, or abetted the commission of such violation/s:

SECTION 1.       Purpose of the Administrative Investigations — Except as otherwise provided in the Dangerous Drugs Act, the administrative investigations herein provided shall be conducted by the duly designated investigating officers mentioned in Section 2 hereof, to determine whether or not a respondent drug establishment is guilty of violating the provisions of R.A. No. 6425, as amended for purposes of the penalties therein provided, and whether or not a petition may be filed with the Professional Regulations Commission for the revocation of the license to practice of the owner, co-owner, lessee, or employee of the drug establishment or member, partner, president, director or manager of a partnership, corporation, association, or any juridical entity owning and/or controlling the drug establishment for knowingly participating in, or consenting to, tolerating, or abetting the commission of the said violations.

SECTION 2.       Officers Authorized to Conduct Administrative Investigations — The following are hereby deputized as investigating officers:

1.       For the National Capital Region

a.         The Chief Legal Officer of the Dangerous Drugs Board.

b.         Any legal officer or lawyer-employee of the National Bureau of Investigation, Finance Ministry Intelligence Bureau and/or the PC-INP based in the National Capital Region recommended by the heads of said agencies shall be designated by the Board to conduct the investigations.

2.       For the other Regions

a.         Any legal officer or lawyer-employee of the Regional Offices of the National Bureau of Investigation and the PC-INP recommended by the heads of said agencies may be designated by the Board to conduct the investigations.

The above officers shall, for purposes only of the administrative investigations, be under the administrative control and supervision of the Board.

SECTION 3.       Procedure and Jurisdiction to Investigate

a.       When the violations are discovered by the officers of the Board authorized under Section 1 of Board Regulation No. 1 s. 1980, to conduct inspections of drug establishments. When, in the course of their inspection of drug establishments, officers authorized to conduct such inspection, discover that a drug establishment has violated any provision/s of the Dangerous Drugs Act, as amended, said officers shall immediately make a report thereof specifying and describing in detail the act/s constituting said violation/s to the Chairman who shall forward such report to the Chief Legal Officer directing the latter to conduct the administrative investigation for the purposes mentioned in Section 1 hereof.  Thereafter the Chief Legal Officer shall submit his findings and recommendations to the Chairman of the Board.

b.       Violations discovered by law enforcement officers of the NBI FMIB and/or the PC-INP — If the violation/s is/are discovered by law enforcement officers/agents of the NBI, FMIB, and/or the PC-INP said officers/agents shall make a report thereof to their respective heads copy furnished the DDB.  The head of the agency to which the discovering officers/agents belong shall recommend any of the legal officers or lawyer-employees of said agency based in the region where the violation/s occurred to the Board which shall designate said legal officer/lawyer-employee to conduct the investigation.  The investigating officer designated shall after the Investigation submit his findings and recommendations to the Chairman of the Board.

If the Chief Legal Officer or the duly designated investigating officer at any stage of the proceedings, believes that the evidence at hand is sufficient to warrant the institution of criminal proceedings against the respondent/s, he shall so recommend to the Chairman of the Board, and the latter shall forward the records of the case to the Ministry of Justice for the filing of the appropriate criminal case.  This is without prejudice to the continuation of the administrative proceedings already begun.

Should the violation/s be discovered in a joint operation of the law enforcement agencies, the requesting agency or the agency which initiated the operation shall have jurisdiction to investigate the case.

SECTION 4.       This Regulation shall take effect immediately.

Adopted: 22 Sept. 1982

(SGD.) J. C. AZURIN
Minister of Health
Chairman