LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Investigators of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) will join other law-enforcement agencies in the investigation of expired medicines dug on the provincial capitol grounds.

Chief Inspector Richard Caballero, provincial CIDG officer, said he will lead the investigation.

Earlier, Gov. Amado Espino Jr. ordered personnel of the Governor’s Office to conduct a thorough investigation on a huge quantities of assorted bottled and packed medicines worth millions of pesos.

These were dug up in a three-meter-deep pit inside the motor pool compound of the provincial engineering department.

Col. Paterno Orduna, chief of the provincial disaster coordinating center (PDCC), led the excavation that yielded the medicine items believed buried some years back. Some of the recovered items included hundreds of intravenous gadgets.

These were either fake or adulterated or expired or substandard. The dug items emitted stinking, toxic smell which could cause serious air pollution. This prompted Orduna’s team to dispose of the items.

"Last Saturday and Sunday, napin-point namin kung saan yung lugar na pinagbaunan at eto nga ay nandyan sa corner. Ayon sa initial report na aming natanggap, ginamitan ng back hoe yung butas na pinagtapunan at ang lalim daw nito ay lagpas sa dalawang tao," Colonel Orduna told media people last June 8.