PNP to submit findings on ‘ninja cops’ to Duterte this week

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police has moved its self-imposed deadline on the adjudication of its personnel included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s narcolist.

PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said that instead of March 5, the PNP would submit its findings to Duterte on March 7.

He explained that this was “just a little adjustment in date to accommodate and complete the arduous task of adjudication.”

The PNP national adjudication board, headed by deputy chief for administration Lt. Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, was tasked to investigate the alleged involvement of some 357 policemen in the illegal drug trade after they were included in Duterte’s narcolist.

Of the 357 policemen in the list 15 have opted for early retirement, 43 were declared absent without official leave and one was killed in a shooting incident, which left the national adjudication board to probe 298 who remain in active service.

The 298 policemen includes Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido who has suspected that his inclusion in the narcolist was possibly the work of politicians out to discredit him.

Espenido is among the top enforcers of Duterte’s war on drugs, having neutralized a number of suspected narcopoliticians during his stints as police chief of Albuera, Leyte, and Ozamiz City.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, Banac acknowledged the possibility that some of the policemen OM the narcolist might have been put there because of false information possibly fed by drug syndicates.

“After the adjudication we will go after those who spread wrong information against our cleared colleagues,” Banac assured.