PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde (center) visits Cebu for the first time as PNP chief on June 15.
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The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) is tracking down a number of policemen who were earlier transferred to areas outside
Region 7 but instead opted to go on absence without official leave (AWOL).
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, PRO-7 director, said they received reports that “several” of these policemen were engaged in the illegal drug trade and other unlawful operations.
“Apparently, they are back in Cebu,” he said.
Director General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, instructed Sinas to validate the report and to immediately act on it by conducting operations against the concerned policemen. Sinas said he’s hoping that not one of the policemen are into the illegal drugs trade.
“They don’t need to be warned. They are mature enough to know what is right or wrong,” he said.
Since the war on drugs started on July 1, 2016, at least 200 policemen in Central Visayas, most of whom were assigned in Cebu, were relieved from their posts and transferred by Camp Crame either to the rebel-affected areas in Luzon or to the war-torn areas in Mindanao.
The revamp, implemented by then PNP Chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, was made to disrupt the supposed illegal drug activities in Cebu following reports that these policemen were receiving money from drug lords.
Since 2016, at least two policemen were killed in separate police operations in Cebu while three others were gunned down by still unknown assailants.
Two police who had gone on AWOL were also killed by unidentified persons.
In his visit in Cebu City last Friday, Albayalde said Cebu remained a “hotspot” for illegal drugs despite numerous anti-narcotics operations since the government started its war on drugs in July 2016.
Police officers of Central Visayas gather at the Central Office for PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde’s first visit on June 15 in Cebu as PNP chief. CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
He said he received reports that there were still a lot of policemen in Cebu who were involved in the illegal drug trade, thus making it more difficult to address the problem.
Although he did not give any figures, Albayalde, who assumed the country’s top police position on April 19, gave a stern warning to all policemen to stop any involvement in the narcotics trade.
Sinas said the PRO-7 would prioritize going after police scalawags if only to cleanse their ranks.
He admitted that illegal drugs remained a primary concern in Cebu and having policemen in the narcotics trade would only worsen the problem.
“We need to intensify our internal cleansing,” Sinas said.
If there was one person who was not happy with Albayalde’s pronouncement, it was Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The mayor was disappointed with the PNP chief for making it appear that the illegal drug situation in Cebu had not improved.
“If he’s singling out Cebu, he’s wrong. Every place is a hotspot to me. Don’t single out Cebu because our chief of police (Senior Supt. Joel Doria) has more buy-busts than the rest of the country,” said Osmeña in a press conference at Cebu City Hall on Monday.
He said he would ask Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office, to submit an accomplishment report to him about their anti-illegal drug operations.
Osmeña said he was planning to send a report to Albayalde so that the PNP chief would have an idea of what the local police had done to eradicate illegal drugs in Cebu City.
“I have these reports (of anti-illegal drugs operations). I receive them everyday. We will match it with reports from any place in the country. These accomplishment reports are longer than his (Albayalde) table. I tell you that,” he said.
“When I became mayor (in 2016), we killed the first two drug lords in the country. To say that we’re a hotspot, possible. But don’t make it appear like we’re the worst. Jaguar (Jeffrey Diaz) is dead. Yawa (Rowen Secretaria) is dead. And we got 9 out of 10 drug lords killed,” he added.
Secretaria, who ranked third among the top drug personalities in Cebu City, was killed in a police operation on Banacon Island in Bohol last May 28, 2016 — three weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte won the presidential race.
On the other hand, Diaz, considered by the police as the top drug lord in Central Visayas, was killed by Cebu-based policemen in an operation in Las Piñas City on June 17, 2016. /with reports from Benjie B. Talisic