Cleansing PNP is vital to the war on drugs

Kudos to the organizers (with special mention to Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo of the Department of Tourism) of the 65th Miss Universe Pageant for the successful hosting of this world renowned international beauty competition for once more putting the Philippines in the world map. If you didn’t notice, the Miss Universe Pageant opened early at 8 in the morning yesterday, which should be 8 p.m. prime time in New York City. But for sure, millions all over the world were able to watch this international event from their satellite TV networks.

When it came to the final six contestants, there was Ms. Kenya, Ms. Colombia, Ms. Haiti, Ms. France, Ms. Thailand and Ms. Philippines, I had a hunch that this was the best spot that Ms. Philippines’ Maxine Medina could get, after all, Miss Universe 2016 is our very own Ms. Pia Wurtzbach. But when the top three were called, Miss Haiti, Miss France and Miss Colombia, I really thought that Miss Haiti would have won the Miss Universe crown. But it was Miss France or Ms. Iris Mittenaere who won this highly coveted Miss Universe crown.

Of course the faux pas that emcee Steve Harvey committed in last year’s Miss Universe Pageant gave him a few comical notes that made the audience laugh. After all, the whole world knew of his great slip up when he named Miss Colombia as Miss Universe, but in less than a minute, he took it all back and named Miss Philippines, Ms. Pia Wurtzbach as Miss Universe. Thankfully that faux pas was not repeated this year and we have to give ourselves a pat on the back for the successful hosting of the Miss Universe Pageant… something that the Duterte administration should be proud of.

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President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte has ordered a reorganization of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and will ask Congress to revisit the law creating the PNP and to simplify the police ranks or titles and their units. Pres. Duterte stated that he wanted to abolish the ranks of SP01 and SP02. All I can say to this is… it’s about time! Indeed, ranks like SP01 or SP02 or SP03 are quite confusing. It was better in the old days when the ranks of the police were named as Lieutenants, Captains, Majors or Generals.

The President also called for the abolition of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group because of the involvement of top PNP officials, notably the so-called “Tokhang-for-ransom-cops” Supt. Raphael Dumlao and Ricky Sta. Isabel in the abduction and killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo last Oct. 18. We know that Pres. Duterte has asked Supt. Dumlao to surrender within 24 hours last Sunday and as of presstime we haven’t heard if he already surrendered, which means that a bounty of P5 million is now in effect for his capture, dead or alive!

Finally at least the Duterte administration is now addressing the more important issue of all… cleansing the ranks of the PNP from rogue cops, many of whom hold top positions within the PNP hierarchy. When the war against illegal drugs went into high gear, those rogue cops also went out of their way to summarily execute the drug lords or pushers whom they used to deal with so that no one would squeal on them. How many so-called victims of Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) were done by these Rogue policemen and in the end, the Human Rights group pin the blame on these killings on the Duterte administration.

A case in point was the killing last June 17 of Cebu’s top drug lord, Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz in Las Piñas City in an operation by policemen from the Central Visayas Regional Intelligence Division (DVRID). From one of our media sources, Jaguar intimated to the reporter in an interview that he feared for his life and wanted to surrender, but not to Central Visayas Police.

I have no doubt that Jaguar had friends or protectors inside the PNP in Central Visayas and when the police in Cebu realized that Jaguar was in Manila, they were afraid that he would surrender to authorities who do not know him and squeal on them. As we all know… dead men tell no tales and there was no investigation on the killing of Jaguar who simply became statistics in the war against drugs. Of course the police told us the usual story that they were going to serve Jaguar with a warrant of arrest and he chose to shoot it out with them. But come now… is that the real story?

Again, let me point out clearly that if pursuing policemen end up shooting their victims that are involved in illegal drugs… all these are blamed on the Duterte administration. But in truth, there is no such order from Malacañang for the police to kill their prey. But the police kill these people for their own preservation. No less than Pres. Duterte pointed out that police scalawags, criminals and drug lords continue to destroy the country and the future of the Filipino people.

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