Scalawag policemen are getting fewer due to aggressive internal cleansing since the Philippine National Police (PNP) was embarrassed by the involvement of its personnel to illegal drugs activities.
“I would like to report to everyone that right now, the number of policemen involved in illegal activities has decreased,” said PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa in an interview over GMA.
He said his statement is backed by the data of the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) which noted a significant decrease on the complaints against erring policemen.
From more than a hundred of calls and text messages everyday, the CITF is now only receiving a two-digit number of complaints.
The CITF, it was recalled, was created after the PNP was kicked out of the war on drugs for the first time in January due to the Jee Ick Joo kidnap-slay case – the killing was done right inside the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame.
Jee was taken from his home in Angeles City under the guise of anti-drugs operation. He was killed the same day and his cadaver cremated to clean evidence but his captors, personnel of abolished Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) that include a police colonel, still demanded R5 million ransom from his family.
Dela Rosa also appealed to the PNP personnel to focus on their job of running after criminals to ensure peace and order in the country.
By doing so, he said they could show to the world that the PNP is composed of good officers, not a bad ones as a result of the wrongdoings of a few.
“Please do not lose hope. Our organization is not a hopeless case. A lot of them (scalawags) have already changed because of our internal cleansing,” said dela Rosa.
The official made the statement a few days after President Duterte said there are at least three police colonels involved in illegal drugs trade based on the updated list of narco-policemen.
Reportedly, there are at least 70 policemen on the list. (Aaron Recuenco)
