War on drugs, police scalawags to continue under Albayalde

NEWLY-NAMED national police chief Oscar Albayalde said there shall be no let-up in the government's war on illegal drugs and vowed to introduce reforms in an effort to weed out scalawags among the ranks of the police.

“Continuity is of utmost importance for what has already been done and what is being done by the PNP and our campaign against illegal drugs, Oplan Double Barrel, Oplan Tokhang. All these will continue because we have all seen their effect on our peace and order, not only in the National Capital Region but the entire country,” said Albayalde.

He also said he would rid the police force of scalawags as directed by President Rodrigo Duterte and Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año.

“Our internal discipline within the organization…as far as I can tell, there are only a few scalawags in uniform. We really need to weed them out to cleanse our ranks and change, transform the PNP," he said.

Albayalde, who is currently National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director, said he will expedite the processing of pending cases of wayward policemen.

Since he began his stint in the NCRPO on July 1, 2016, some 279 police officers had been dismissed from the service and 99 more were demoted while 825 others had been suspended, and 365 were reassigned to areas outside the NCR.

Duterte named Albayalde to replace Director General Ronald dela Rosa when he retires this month.