Two police officers died in the friendly fire incident while one police officer and three PDEA agents were injured. Both the PNP and PDEA agreed to execute a joint investigation in response to the incident. The
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) was designated by the PNP to lead their investigation, while the regional director of the
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) would relay official updates of the PNP's investigation to the public. The
Department of Justice had also ordered the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to create a parallel investigation on the incident. The NBI was later designated as the sole investigating body for the incident by President Rodrigo Duterte, who ordered the joint PNP-PDEA investigation to be stopped in a bid to ensure impartiality. Duterte also asked the Senate and the House of Representatives to delay their own investigation on the incident. Ten police officers and seven PDEA agents were reportedly "restricted" to the CIDG headquarters following the incident. The PDEA claims, on its part, that it was the police who started the gunfight and noted that the PDEA were seen identifying themselves to the police in CCTV footage. Another possibility being considered by the police is that one side may have been conducting a sell-bust operation, where law enforcement agencies pose as drug dealers to apprehend buyers of illegal drugs. The NBI said in May 2021, that PDEA's informant Untong Matalnas and one of the shootout's casualties, may have acted on his own by pretending to sell drugs to Jonaire Decena. Decena is a detainee who was used as an asset of the PNP for their operation.
May 14 incident Another similar incident occurred on May 14, 2021. Quezon City police Novaliches station drug enforcement unit personnel and PDEA agents conducted anti-illegal drugs operations independent of each other in a same parking lot near a shopping mall in Novaliches. A shootout or a "misencounter" was averted after the two groups were able to identify each other. This led to PDEA and PNP officials holding a meeting over the following weekend.
Reform PDEA and PNP drafted new guidelines on conducting operations so that they could avoid potential future incidents like the February 2021 shootout. On July 9, 2021, PDEA and PNP signed the Unified Coordination Guidelines, a memorandum circular intended to prevent "misencounters" and miscoordination between the two agencies. Among the key provisions were: • With coordination with PDEA, only the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) and Drug Enforcement Units (DEUs) of regional, district, provincial, city, municipal, and police stations are authorized to conduct anti-illegal drug operations • Other operating units are only allowed to participate in PDEG / DEUs led operations, which in turn are coordinated with PDEA. • Only a single anti-drug operation should be conducted in a given area at a particular time covering areas of jurisdiction of PNP stations ==Reactions==