Police halts controversial anti-drug drive

The national police has temporarily halted its anti-drugs drive as it turns its attention on purging its ranks of rogue policemen.

Overall government efforts against narcotics will, however, continue.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Roland dela Rosa said on Monday they saw the need to cleanse the ranks of the police, particularly Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG), of corrupt elements that was giving the entire law enforcement arm a bad name.

“We have to focus our efforts on internal cleansing,” Dela Rosa said in a press briefing at the national police headquarters in Quezon City on Monday.

No more drug operations, for now

"Once we have purged the PNP of misfits, the president will determine if it’s time for the PNP to go back to the war against drugs. But right now, no more drug operations."

The government launched a massive drive to eradicate illegal drugs and its use after President Rodrigo Duterte assumed authority in July 2016.

While the intention of the campaign was clear, some officials had abused their mandate as anti-drug enforcers.

Reports cite that a total of 3,603 people were killed by unidentified gunmen since July 1. This figure does not include those killed in encounters which police claim were legitimate.

There had earlier been fears that the government’s anti-drugs drive, called "Oplan Tokhang" and "Double Barrel", would be abused by some law enforcers, using the campaign for extorting from civilians.

Kidnap for ransom cops

The recent kidnapping and murder of retired South Korean shipping executive Jee Ick Joo served as a wake-up call for the PNP on how “corrupt to the core,” the police force had become.

Joo was reported to have been killed by police officers several weeks after his kidnapping in Angeles, Pampanga in October 2016.

Police officers detailed with the AIDG based in Camp Crame were allegedly behind the South Korean’s abduction.

In a press conference in Malacañan on Monday, Duterte vowed to overhaul the PNP and its anti-illegal drugs units after unscrupulous policemen misused the Oplan Tokhang.

The investigations revealed a ranking police official, Senior Supt. Glenn Dumlao, as the mastermind in the killing of Joo.

Dumlao, however, denied any involvement.

Surrender

Since Dumlao is already in police custody, Duterte called on the National Bureau of Investigation to surrender its agents who are accused of involvement in the kidnapping of Joo within 48 hours, or he would order a manhunt with a P1 million (Dh73,900) bounty for the capture of these men.

At the same time, Duterte said he wanted all PNP anti-drug units abolished and replaced with an anti-narcotics body that will work hand in hand with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

PDEA will now be the government’s primary anti-illegal drugs body, instead of the PNP AIDG.

The President said he believed the organisational shake-up would not affect the administration’s war on drugs.

Duterte has repeatedly said that he wanted rogue members of the police deployed to the front lines of the fighting in Sulu, Basilan, Zamboanga peninsula, and Lanao Del Sur, where the government is fighting extremism.

Citing the government’s crackdown on rogue policemen, Senator Panfilo Lacson announced that he was suspending the Senate’s hearings on “tokhang for ransom” incidents involving rogue men in uniform.

Lacson, who chairs the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said it would be wise for the Senate to wait and see how the major changes in the anti-drug war will work out

source : gulfnews