Bato vows cleansing to purge PNP of scalawags

MANILA, Philippines -  Don’t let the jokes fool you; Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa is serious about addressing illegal drugs and cleansing the ranks of the police force.

Dela Rosa said he would prioritize the internal cleansing of the PNP.

“We will have inventory of policemen with previous criminal records. Kahit na yung mga (even those) scalawags na yan kakanta sa akin ng (who would sing to me) ‘Please forgive me I don’t know what I do. Please forgive me’ ha ha ha,” said Dela Rosa during a press briefing, as he sang the Bryan Adams song “Please Forgive Me.”

He said he would make sure these policemen would suffer the consequences of their actions. “After that they should sing ‘Please release me, let me go.’ That means they should resign.”

“Joking aside, I will dedicate the remaining 11 months in the service of the PNP. In the remaining months of my career I hope we could redeem ourselves. I am imploring everyone to help me,” he said.

PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos defended the character of the PNP chief.

“He (Dela Rosa) is dedicated to cleansing the PNP, given the right time let us continue the fight against illegal drugs. If that is his way, everybody has a personality but we know very well that he is serious about cleaning the ranks and continuing the fight against illegal drugs,” Carlos added.

Dela Rosa also said that he has appointed Senior Supt. Jose Chiquito Malayo as head of the newly formed Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF).

Dela Rosa directed Malayo to recruit policemen as members of CITF, a unit he formed in response to recent controversies in which policemen were implicated in crimes under the cloak of the government’s war on drugs.

Dela Rosa on Monday suspended their participation in the drug war and dissolved the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group as well as similar anti-drug units down to the police station level following the kidnapping and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo by rogue police anti-narcotics operatives.

Police officers kidnapped Jee and his househelp last Oct. 18, after raiding his house in Angeles City using a supposed arrest warrant that implicated him in illegal drug activities.

A policeman allegedly strangled Jee to death inside PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City that same day.

Dela Rosa said vetting should be done to ensure that only officers with good moral character are assigned at CITF, which will have an initial manpower of about 100.

“We need people like saints so there will be no doubt in what they would be doing,” Dela Rosa told reporters.

The unit’s main focus is to weed out criminal-minded policemen such as those involved in kidnapping, robbery and extortion.

Malayo was the police chief of Zamboanga City that was attacked by armed members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in September 2013.

He convinced 23 MNLF rebels under Commander Ugong to surrender.

Prior to heading the CITF, Malayo was deputy director at the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office.

“He is God fearing, battle tested, high achiever and a very honest person,” FEO director Chief Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag said of Malayo.

At least 700 policemen in the watch list on illegal drugs and those facing grave offenses are being targeted for “cleansing” by the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), a police official said yesterday.

Dumping scalawags

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who hails from Cagayan de Oro City, urged the PNP to stop the policy of re-assigning police scalawags to Mindanao, “because the South deserves to get honest and disciplined lawmen like the rest of the country.”

Pimentel said the PNP should file administrative cases against the erring lawmen so that they could be expelled from the police force or send them back to school for re-education and re-orientation of values.

He cited the dismay and apprehension of law-abiding citizens in the South for being the dumping ground of rogue policemen.

“Mindanao should be treated by the PNP with the same respect that all Filipinos deserve regardless of their faith, culture or economic status,” Pimentel said.

He called on Dela Rosa to stop this practice amid complaints of abuses in the government’s continuing war on illegal drugs.

NCRPO chief Director Oscar Albayalde met with the five district directors of Metro Manila yesterday at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City to come up with a policy on how to deal with police scalawags.

“We will prioritize those under our watchlist on illegal drugs, and the 549 others who are facing grave offenses which are punishable by a minimum of six months suspension and the maximum of dismissal from the police service,” said Albayalde.

“Since there is no clear guidance from the national headquarters in Camp Crame on how we do our cleansing process, I decided to meet my district directors for us to establish a uniform policy,” said Albayalde.

Albayalde said the NCRPO would also strengthen their counter-intelligence unit to be headed by Senior Supt. Eleazar Matta, NCRPO’s intelligence chief, to monitor activities of erring cops.

The first casualty of the NCRPO chief’s cleansing process was Police Officer 1 Antonio Villacorta, who was reassigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao because of his extortion activities. – With Paolo Romero, Non Alquitran