Manila probes 2,000 ‘rogue’ cops for drugs, murder

MANILA: More than 2,000 “rogue” policemen, including senior officers bearing the rank of colonel, are being investigated for their alleged involvement in illegal drugs as well as for other high profile crimes like robbery-extortion, murder and kidnapping.

This was revealed by Colonel Rey Lambojo, the chief of Phiippine National Police Integrity and Enforcement Monitory Group (IMEG) which has been reactivated as the main PNP unit for information-gathering and the conduct of operations and lifestyle check on suspected “scalawags” in the 160,000-strong agency.

But Lambojo refused to name the PNP colonels allegedly involved even as he revealed that most of the policemen being investigated have been assigned to Metro Manila, composed of 15 cities and one town with a total population of close to 12 million.

of the total of 2,120 PNP men being investigated and placed under surveillance, 504 were were senior officials including the colonels and 1,616 non-commissioned officer, according to Lambojo.

He added that 736 or 38 per cent were denounced by complainants for their alleged link to robbery-extortion while the rest were being investigated for illegal drugs, illegal gambling, kidnapping and other major offences.

One of the more significant aspects in the new agency, Lambojo said, was that he and his men were authoriized to conduct lifestyle checks on the “scalawags” as well as look into the assets they did not declare in an official document called the statement of assets, liabilities and networth (Saln).

Under the law, all civil servants from the president down to the messenger are to submit their Salns annually mainly to determine whether they have enriched themselves while in office.

Lambojo disclosed that his group was coordinating closely with the Anti-money Laundering Council (AMLC) if their investigations and lifestyle checks would confirm that the scalawags did not declare their illegal assets in their Salns.

“A lifestyle check is conducted by our unit as part of the investigation. Once an erring member of the PNP is arrested, we submit our case folder to the AMLC,” he said, vowing that they would “not spare anyone.”

Lambojo said his unit was reactivated with stronger powers and replaced the PNP Counterintelligence Task Force to implement the PNP “internal cleansing programme” to rid the agency of rogue police officers and men.