No cop extortion in PRO 11, say

THE Police Regional Office (PRO 11) assured the public that no incident would occur in the region similar to the case of a South Korean businessman who was kidnapped and later found dead.

Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, PRO 11 spokesperson Chief Inspector Andrea de la Cerna said the police officers under Region 11 will not be involved in illegal activities such as the alleged "Tokhang for ransom" which she later said is a clear case of extortion.

"I am confident that it will never happen here in PRO 11," she said.

De la Cerna also said that PRO 11 regional director Police Senior Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan said they will show no mercy and will not tolerate any illegal activity committed by their personnel for their personal gain.

"First of all we would like to clarify the phrase `Tokhang for ransom'. Alam naman natin kung ano ang nangyari sa Luzon but then, definitely it's not `Tokhang for ransom' but a clear example to extortion," she said.

She underscored that Oplan Tokhang is "implemented with the intention to persuade suspected drug users and pushers and not to be used as a way to commence other illegal activities especially by the PNP."

The incident in the capital, she said, is not a drug operation since the cops issued a fake warrant of arrest while operation Tokhang only informed drug users or pushers without issuing any warrant which is a different procedure.

"We are following PNP operational procedures, specific guides and process para makapag issue tayo ng warrant of arrest. In that case, hindi natin yan ginagawa sa Oplan Tokhang," she said.

Although she admitted that there are other rogue cops who are present in their organization, she said that there are still responsible cops who perform their duties accordingly. She, thus, urged the public to keep their trust and confidence to the PNP.

"We are really trying our best to clean our organization with this rogue cops and we will not tolerate any illegal activities," she said.

Meanwhile, de la Cerna

also bared the success of their project Oplan Double Barrel Alpha that started last October.

As of January 25, they visited 54,702 houses with 10,690 drug users and 360 pushers who surrendered. A total of 419 were arrested and 28 were killed. JCR