On January 30, Philippine National Police Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said the government’s war on drugs will be suspended as they start to prioritize purging rogue policemen within the PNP ranks.
This announcement came to light after the killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo inside Camp Crame. Allegedly the businessman was abducted from his home in Angeles, Pampanga on October 18, 2016 by policemen of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs group. It was discovered that Jee was strangled on the same day he was abducted.
Chief Dela Rosa then issued a warning to all police scalawags.
“Humanda kayo ngayon, kayong masasamang mga pulis. Wala na kaming war on drugs. Meron kami ngayong war on scalawags. Lilinisin namin ang hanay namin ngayon. Then after that, maybe, babalik na namin kami sa war on drugs. Linisin muna namin sabi ni Presidente,” Dela Rosa said.
Dela Rosa admitted that he doesn’t know when the PNP will be purged of corrupt cops , but believes the process will be quicker with the right cooperation.
“I don’t know how long will it take to cleanse the PNP, but with each and every one of us cooperating, I am sure, kahit sabihin mo sigurong one month, kaya naming gawin ‘yan,” he added.
Chief Dela Rosa said the PNP has plans of forming a task force assigned to root out any rogue elements within the police force. Dela Rosa revealed that he has assigned various units to consolidate efforts in this new fight, such as compiling a list of suspected police ‘scalawags’.
He hopes the leader of this new counter-intelligence task force is courageous and beyond doubt – uncorrupted and ready to face rogue policemen.
“No more anti-drug operations, we have to focus our efforts towards internal cleansing… The president will determine that and he will instruct us to go back to war on drugs, but for now no more drug operations… That is why starting today I dissolved the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, all anti-drug units from the national, local to the police station level,” he added.
Meanwhile, Senator Leila de Lima leveled strong criticism against the PNP in light of the slaying of Korean businessman Jee.
The Senator issued a statement after President Rodrigo Duterte himself admitted that 40 percent of the police are “corrupt to the core.”
De Lima called the PNP under Duterte as “the most organized criminal group in the country.”
“The moment Duterte turned the PNP into a vigilante death squad, its transformation into an organized criminal syndicate has been completed”
“The PNP under Duterte can now be considered as the most organized criminal group in the country. When you speak of organized crime in the Philippines, you speak of the PNP under Duterte,” she added.
Further, she voiceD concerns over the President’s state of mind.
“This is why I continue to worry about the state of the President’s mental health. He displays signs of cognitive dissonance not only in his carefree monologues but worse, also in his official pronouncements,” Senator De Lima said.
“This latest incongruence between his factual assertion of a rotten police force on the one hand and his reliance on them to continue prosecuting his drug war as official government policy has dire consequences, which means more killings by corrupt and criminal policemen.”
“And, as the kidnapping of the Korean shows, these criminal acts won’t be limited to drugs, as we have predicted, but will definitely expand to other police ‘cottage industries’ like kidnap-for-ransom and business shakedowns,” the senator added.
Do you trust the words of Chief Bato? Do you think De Lima has a fair point? Tell us your thoughts on these recent events!
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