Bato dela Rosa wants cops to quadruple efforts to meet Duterte target

National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa on Friday directed his men not only to triple but quadruple their efforts in order to fulfill President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promise of eradicating illegal drugs within his first three to six months in office.

“We can’t afford to fail the President in his campaign promise to eradicate the drug problem, criminality and corruption within 6 months,” Dela Rosa said in his speech in La Trinidad, Benguet.

“We are now running out of time, two months have passed already. In the remaining four months, I hope we will not only double, triple, or quadruple our efforts in order to hit the target. Otherwise, as I have said, we cannot afford to fail the Filipino people,” he added.

On Thursday, Dela Rosa expressed apprehension on whether the PNP would be able to meet its target of making 1.8 million drug users surrender. 

“Nagwo-worry nga kami dahil after we reached 600,000 plus (na nag-surrender) nag-plateu na kami. Hindi na umaakyat yung number of nag-surrender. Kaya worried ako baka hindi ma-meet yung 1.8 million na mag-surrender, that's according to the estimate of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Ganun kataas yung aming hinihingi 1.8 million pero ngayon nasa 600,000. Medyo nag plateu,” he said.

In his speech on Friday, Dela Rosa rallied his men not to be disheartened by criticisms.

“Bagama’t marami tayong batikos na naririnig sa ating ginagawa, ipagpatuloy lang natin ang ating kampanya basta lahat ng ginagawa natin ay naaayon sa batas at paggalang sa karapatang pantao,” he said.

The PNP has been scored for alleged violation of human rights because of the deaths of drug suspects during police operations and the summary killings of those allegedly involved in illegal drugs.

A total of 929 drug suspects have been killed by police since the Duterte administration took office, Dela Rosa said during the budget hearing at the House of Representatives Thursday.

Figures from the PNP National Operation Center showed that as of 6 a.m. on September 1, a total of 13,247 drug suspects have been arrested as a result of 8,215 operations conducted.

A total of 629,229 drug suspects surrendered, 41,458 of whom were pushers, from July 1. Police were also able to visit 582,134 houses as part of Project Tokhang. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News