Bato: Overeagerness, failure to cleanse ranks among PNP’s drug war lapses

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa admitted Friday that their failure to totally cleanse their ranks and the unchecked overeagerness of his men were among the lapses committed in the implementation of the campaign against illegal drugs.

“Ang pagkakamali namin? Siguro 'yung sobrang gigil at saka inaamin namin na hindi pa rin namin totally na cleanse ‘yung aming ranks before we waged the war on drugs,” Dela Rosa said.

“Dapat sana na-cleanse muna namin ‘yung aming ranks bago kami bumanat sa war on drugs para hindi masakyan ng mga hunyango na mga narco cops, mga ninja cops ‘yung aming operations,” he added.

In October, President Rodrigo Duterte made the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency the lead agency in the war on drugs following incidents involving members of the Caloocan City Police.

The PNP has been blamed for the high death toll in the drug war, with most of the fatalities being suspects who allegedly resisted arrest and fought it out with the arresting officers.

Early this year, Duterte also removed the PNP from the campaign after the kidnap-slay of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo by policemen who reportedly used the war on drugs to perpetrate the crime.

Dela Rosa said if Duterte would allow them to return to the war on drugs, they would equip their men with body cameras to avoid abuses during operations.

“Pipilitin namin na ma-procure ‘yung body camera para iissue namin sa lahat ng aming anti-drug operatives para kung sila ay mag-conduct ng buy-bust operations, transparent tayo. Kapag mabalik kami sa war on drugs dapat mabili na namin ‘yung aming body camera,” he said.

Dela Rosa earlier said that he would recommend to the President their return to the campaign once the number of crimes committed by drug users would increase. He said he has yet to talk to Duterte about it.

“Hindi pa naman kami nag-uusap tungkol dyan. Maghintay lang ako kung tanungin niya ako na mag-present ng data then I will present. Pero kung sabihin mo ako mag-present, that's self serving. Sabihin mo na atat na atak ka bumalik sa war on drugs,” he said.

But he admitted that they were alarmed with the recent rape-slay case in Pasig City. He said when they were still leading the war on drugs, the number of rape cases went down.

“Naalarma kami, that's rape. Rape is a rape, ‘yung mga biktima ay napakabata pa, napakagandang nilalang na pwede pang magkaroon ng magandang kinabukasan, nakakaalarma talaga ‘yan. I don't want to speculate but tingnan n’yo naman, n’ung malakas ‘yung ating war on drugs meron ba kayong nabalitaan na ganito ka sensational na rape case?” he said.

“Napakalaki ang posibilidad ng association ng drug problem at rape cases. Definitely dahil walang matinong tao na mang-rape, patayin ang babae, at sunugin pa ang biktima kung matino ang utak mo, kung hindi ka lango sa drugs, hindi ba. Ayaw kong mag insinuate sa publiko na ‘yan ang dahilan but that's a glaring reality,” Dela Rosa added. —KBK, GMA News