Mayors say killings eroding public trust in police

Two Metro Manila mayors yesterday asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to help them deal with the rising number of unresolved killings in the metropolis as the public has apparently lost trust in the police.

Pateros Mayor Miguel Ponce III and Mandaluyong Mayor Carmelita Aguilar-Abalos voiced their concerns before Secretary Ismael Sueno during the Metro Manila Council meeting in Makati.

Sueno is chairman of the National Police Commission, which has supervision over the Philippine National Police.

Ponce said the DILG should come up with concrete solutions to deal with the unresolved drug deaths as the police appear unable to arrest persons behind the killings more than four months after the war on drugs was launched.

“The people are asking results from the 1st death up to the 36th, but we have nothing to show to them … we are having difficulties answering all the questions of our constituents in our level,” he said.

In Pateros, the police have recorded 37 deaths since the war on drugs started last July, but not even one case was resolved, he added.

Ponce said some drug suspects fear for their lives because a majority of those who were killed had previously surrendered to the police and have been identified.

The more drug suspects are identified, the more likely they will get killed, he added.

Ponce said the number of drug suspects undergoing rehabilitation has decreased by 50 percent since last July after some of them were killed.

The government should not stop the war against illegal drugs, but the killings should be stopped, he added.

Abalos said families of drug suspects have already lost trust in the police.

“You have to ask (PNP) how to get back the trust of the surrenderees who are willing to change their ways, but of course we have to give them the protection that they need,” she said.

Abalos said most of those killed had previously surrendered to the police and promised to change their ways on the condition that they would be spared their lives.

“They are serious about changing their lives, but I don’t know what to say because there was even an instance that a person was killed in front of a police mobile,” she said.

The two mayors also asked the DILG to boost the PNP’s effort to resolve the rising “riding-intandem” cases in Metro Manila.

Metro Manila mayors convened in an executive meeting after they expressed their concerns on the rampant killings in the metropolis.

The mayors were to discuss how to deal with traffic in Metro Manila, but they apparently took the opportunity since Sueno was present.

Shortly after the closed-door meeting, Sueno told reporters that he assured the mayors he would focus on the problem as it is something that cannot be ignored.