The big purge

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (L) talks to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa (R) during a press conference at the Malacanang palace in Manila on January 30, 2017.
Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte on January 30, 2017 extended his deadly drug war until the last day of his term in 2022, but conceded the police force acting as his frontline troops was “corrupt to the core”. Thousands of people have died in the crackdown that began when Duterte took office in the middle of last year, with rights groups warning police are carrying out extrajudicial killings not just to fight crime but to aid their own corrupt activities. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / NOEL CELIS

There will be no more police-led anti-drug operations in the country — at least for the next couple of weeks or so after Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa indefinitely suspended, on Monday, PNP’s controversial war on drugs to focus instead on going after rogue cops.

As news of Dela Rosa’s pronouncement reached the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in the region (PDEA-7), both agencies again found themselves standing on opposite ends of the pole, with CHR-7 expressing a huge amount of relief and PDEA feeling a deep sense of loss.

PDEA needs help

PDEA-7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz said the agency has always been the lead anti-drug law enforcement agency responsible for preventing, investigating and combating any dangerous drugs in the country since 2002.

But when the police came in to assist PDEA, he said they welcomed the move, hoping that they will arrest more drug suspects.
“So far, it has been very productive working with the police,” said Ruiz in a phone interview yesterday.

“Nindot man gud kon daghan ta aron maglabad ang ulo sa kontra (It is good if there are many units that will take part in our anti-drug campaign so that our enemies will have a hard time doing their business),” he added.

Ruiz said PDEA-7 is always ready to fight illegal drugs but only insofar as “high-level targets” are concerned.

“(Considering our manpower), we can’t go down to the street level pushers. We, however, have the strength to go after the high-value targets like what we have been doing lately,” he said.

Ruiz expressed hopes that the police will soon resume its anti-drug operations.

“It’s just that there are policemen who are only thinking of themselves. Their acts affected those who are doing good in the service,” Ruiz said.

But if the police won’t soon revive its anti-narcotics operations, Ruiz said he might be forced to designate PNP personnel who will act as “deputized agents” of PDEA.

“In that case, though, I have to choose very properly who among the policemen should serve as PDEA’s deputized agents,” he said.

Ruiz refused to reveal the actual number of personnel PDEA-7 currently has as a matter of security protocol.

CHR happy

For his part, CHR-7 chief investigator Leo Villarino, welcomed Dela Rosa’s decision, saying that they are happy with the move.

“At the outset, PDEA is the lead agency against illegal drugs. The police came in and a number of them conducted questionable operations,” Villarino said.

“The public is at the losing end. It’s hard for them to determine who is doing the right thing. They do not know who among the police is trustworthy,” he added.

Villarino hoped that PDEA will do its best to carry out its mandate.

“I hope PDEA can be effective on this one. Let’s see what they can do. I just hope that not one of the PDEA agents are involved in illegal drugs. We can just pray and cross our fingers,” he said.

The PNP, Villarino said, should also make sure that it eliminates all police scalawags.

“An internal cleansing was done before, and yet we find out that there are still many bad eggs in the police service. Several lives have been lost in the war on drugs and we don’t know how many of these fell victims to cops who are involved in illegal drugs,” Villarino said.

“I believe the police know who among their colleagues are into illegal drugs. I hope that an honest-to-goodness cleansing will be done in the PNP,” he added.

CHR-7 is looking into at least 42 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, most of whom involved policemen.

PNP records show that at least, 7,071 drug suspects in the Philippines were killed since President Duterte unleashed government’s relentless campaign against illegal drugs on July 1, 2016.

The deaths were both from legitimate police operations and vigilante-style killings.

Law enforcers arrested 52,674 in different operations, while some 1,177,250 drug pushers and users surrendered during the implementation of the Oplan Tokhang, a campaign where the police literally knock on the doors of suspected drug personalities to ask them to stop their illegal operations.

In Central Visayas, police convinced 106,760 drug users and pushers to surrender, and arrested 5,257 drug suspects.
At least 157 drug suspects were killed in different operations in the region, while 352 others were gunned down by unknown assailants, data from Police Regional Office (PRO-7) covering the period July 1, 2016 to January 26, 2017 stated.

Suspension

Dela Rosa put on hold the police war on drugs to focus on cleaning its own ranks as allegations of a highly corrupt police force continued to haunt the PNP.

“No more anti-drug operations. We have to focus our efforts towards internal cleansing,” he said in a speech at Camp Crame.

On orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, Dela Rosa also disbanded the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) following the death of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo at the hands of rogue policemen inside Camp Crame.

Jee was taken from his home in Angeles, Pampanga last October 18, 2016 by policemen of the PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Group in the guise of a drug operation. It was later revealed that the businessman was killed inside the police headquarters in Camp Crame on the same day he was abducted.

Dela Rosa said the PNP will form a counter-intelligence task force against rogue cops, adding that he instructed various units to consolidate efforts and come up with a list of police scalawags.

“Humanda kayo ngayon, kayong masasamang mga pulis. Wala na kaming war on drugs. Meron kami ngayong war on scalawags. Lilinisin namin ang hanay namin ngayon. Then after that, maybe, babalik na naman kami sa war on drugs. Linisin muna namin sabi ni Presidente,” Dela Rosa said.

(Rogue cops, beware. There is no war on drugs for the meantime. We’re shifting to war on scalawags. We will clean our own ranks first. Then after that, maybe, we can resume to the war on drugs. We’ll clean our ranks first according to the President.)

Dela Rosa said they will make sure that the leader of the counter-intelligence task force is “clean, courageous and has no qualms about fighting rogue cops.”

“We have to make sure that the leader would be without question and doubts,” he said.

President Duterte, he said, will determine when the police will resume its anti-narcotics operations.

In the meantime, PDEA will take the lead in the government’s attempt to eliminate illegal drugs in the country.

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), was not available for comment yesterday; while deputy mayor on police matters Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak expressed dislike for the PNP’s move.

“I believe the police’s anti-drugs campaign got the nod of the public. And then all of a sudden, they decided to stop. They might lose the trust of the public,” he said.

“If the police will stop its anti-narcotics operations, drug syndicates will all the more continue their operations. The supply of drugs in the market will again increase,” added Tumulak.

“To be honest, I think PDEA could not eradicate illegal drugs by themselves. They need the PNP,” he said.
Tumulak believes that PNP anti-drug operations should continue even while investigations are conducted against rogue policemen.

Head count

Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) director, Senior Supt. Eric Noble issued a warning to his subordinates while he welcomed Dela Rosa’s move to first cleanse the ranks of PNP.

“Pagka ako nadalihan ko dito ng tokhang, isasama ko kayo kung saan ako mapunta. I will make sure they cannot go back to Cebu habang nasa serbisyo pa ako (If any of my men gets caught doing “tokhang [for ransom]”, I will take them with me wherever I would end up in. I will make sure they cannot go back to Cebu while I’m still in service),” Noble said.

Noble said that CPPO has been closely monitoring all 1,911 cops assigned in the province through daily formation and flag raising ceremonies in all stations so that all CPPO members could be accounted for.

The police chiefs were ordered by Noble document the daily formations and then post them on social media as proof that they had not been remiss of their duties.

Noble explained that this was a way of detecting “ninja cops” or police scalawags who are often absent from the office and whose activities are unmonitored, only to reappear at random times.