More than 100 policemen from Metro Manila were reassigned to various areas in Mindanao as punishment for their involvement in drugs and other illegal activities.
Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, said there will be more as at least 60 policemen assigned in various parts of Metro Manila were either monitored or accused of wrongdoings.
“We are monitoring some 67 of our personnel who are continuously engaged in illegal drugs activities,” said Albayalde.
One of them, according to Albayalde, was accused of extorting some P300,000 from the relatives of a suspected drug user who was arrested in a police operation. The erring cop is reportedly in cahoots with eight other colleagues.
Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police, had said that 108 policemen from Metro Manila were deployed to some parts of conflict-torn areas in Mindanao. He revealed that one of them was killed in an ambush in Maguindanao recently.
The PNP leadership is investigating reports that some of the policemen reassigned to Mindanao went AWOL or Absent without Official Leave.
Fourteen of them from Metro Manila reportedly went on AWOL.
While erring cops in Metro Manila and Luzon are being to Mindanao, policemen suspected to be involved in the illegal drugs trade in Mindanao and Visayas are reassigned to Luzon. (Aaron B. Recuenco)