Police addicts in Cebu? How miserable we are

Last Tuesday evening when President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte came to Cebu to attend the conference of the League of Municipalities he said something that was quite difficult to comprehend, he literally accused Cebu policemen of being “drug addicts.” I recall that when Duterte became president, he had a list of police officers purportedly in the drug trade and among them is Chief Superintendent Marcelino Garbo and yes, it also included Chief Superintendent Vicente Loot, whom the president always talks about.

Now the Police Regional Office-7 has finally admitted that there are cops in Cebu that are into drugs as pointed out by no less than Duterte during his speech in Cebu last Tuesday. However, PRO-7 Director Debold Sinas was quick to say that the PNP office is doing corrective measures and internal cleansing is ongoing. In my book, it is the police who should be fighting the war against illegal drugs as ordered by the president. But then if the police are involved in this illegal business, it gets more difficult to neutralize. Let’s hope that Sinas can correct these problems before they become too big to resolve.

While we’re at it, it brings us back to the issue of Senior Police Officer 1 Adonis Dumpit who was killed by the police in Tagbilaran City. There was no investigation in that case and the poor Dumpit was painted as being involved in the illegal drug business. At this point, we will never know what the truth is. As far as I’m concerned, until and unless the PNP in Region 7 comes up with verifiable evidence that Dumpit was into illegal drugs, only then can we believe the PNP had proper reason to neutralize him.

In his speech last Tuesday, Duterte described policemen in Cebu as “addicts,” including personnel from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. This also brings us back to the recent deaths of two PDEA agents. Were they killed by these supposed policemen “addicts”? Again, we the public need to know.

Meanwhile, PDEA-7 Director Wardley Getalla said that his agency “will always have zero tolerance for those in the service who will compromise the integrity and credibility of the entire PDEA-7.” Yet we still have not received any official reports on who killed the two PDEA agents. It was only last July 27 when PDEA Agent Earl Rallos was gunned down near the Provincial Capitol and it happened just a few minutes before I passed nearby. Then on August 2, Von Rian Tecson also of PDEA was killed in Barangay Perrelos, Carcar City, in a highly questionable murder.

Unfortunately, the story coming from PRO-7 Director Debold Sinas was too full of holes for the Cebu media to accept. Either he comes up with the truth or he should be investigated for covering up this murder case. Imagine no less than the president even said that the PDEA was the distributor of illegal drugs. So does this tell us that the people killing the PDEA agents are into the illegal drugs business as their competitors? I hope not!

Meanwhile, President Duterte clearly identified the Talisay Police as into illegal drugs. Frankly speaking, we would like to know more about this sad information coming from Talisay City, which I’m sure is disturbing to Talisay City Mayor Eddie Gullas. The whole trouble is the president is giving us some information on what is happening within the police, but we need to be more accurate because these are very important issues concerning the police in Talisay City.

Finally, there is that report that the police here believe that there is a high probability that a laboratory or a warehouse in Cebu is supplying illegal drugs, considering the quality of the substance available at the street level. Again, this is something that police intelligence has to find out. The last time the police discovered a drug laboratory here was the huge facility in Mandaue City along the road leading to the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.

Finally, Duterte assured the mayors in his speech last Tuesday that the mid-term elections next year will be fair and honest and that private armies will not be tolerated. “Walang partido partido. Your votes will be counted and will be counted correctly.” At least 283 municipal mayors in Western, Eastern, and Central Visayas attended the event last Tuesday.