NCRPO chief urged to review award given to Caloocan police

Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin on Friday urged National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde to review the award given to the Caloocan City Police Station.

Villarin said this after Albayalde relieved the entire Caloocan City police from their posts over a controversial raid on a house without a search warrant.

"The metro chief should review the award given to the Caloocan police if indeed they were deserving of it," Villarin said, referring to the Best City Police Station in NCR given by the NCRPO last month.

The award was given during the 116th Police Service Anniversary celebration of NCRPO last August 18, two days after the controversial killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos in a police anti-drug operation in Caloocan City.

The NCRPO said the Caloocan Police Station was awarded as it got the highest accomplishment in Project Double Barrel/Barrel Alpha, the police force's intensified anti-illegal drug campaign.

Villarin said more than just removing the Caloocan policemen from their posts, he should also ask the Internal Affairs Service "to do its job in looking into each and every sacked police personnel and file appropriate administrative charges soonest."

"The public should be convinced that this is not a moro-moro but a sincere effort on the part of the PNP," he said.

Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano, for his part, said Albayalde's action will have no significant impact without reviewing the police's rules of engagement and policies in carrying out war on drugs, and without denouncing extrajudicial killings and committing to run after vigilantes who kill without let up."

"Kung hindi, palabas lang ito at ang mga ganitong gawain ay magpapatuloy," he said.

Caloocan City Representative Edgar Erice, meanwhile, said police abuses and brutality will continue not only in Caloocan but throughout the country if the Duterte administration will insists on the war on drugs policy.

"Practically, the government has given the police the right to kill, the right to plant evidence, the right to ignore terms of engagement and the rule of law," he said. —KBK, GMA News