‘Caloocan PNP overhaul shows commitment to cleanse ranks’
The overhaul of the Caloocan City police force reflects the “firm commitment” of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to cleanse its ranks of misfits, Malacañang said yesterday.
More than 1,000 Caloocan policemen were sacked and transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig for retraining after their station was tagged in the killings of teenagers Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.
They were replaced by 991 policemen from the PNP Regional Public Safety Battalion over the weekend.
“The official relief of the Caloocan City Police Station personnel over the weekend and their retraining, which will start tomorrow (Oct. 2), demonstrate the firm commitment of the Philippine National Police to continuously cleanse its ranks of misfits and scalawags and maintain the integrity of the organization,” presidential spokesman Ernest Abella said in a statement yesterday.
“The PNP leadership’s effort to instill discipline and promote characterbuilding while enhancing the performance of personnel and units would be relentless,” he added.
Abella urged the public to support the policemen “as they enforce the law and carry out their operations within legal processes.”
Meanwhile, the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) advised the PNP to focus on law enforcement and cautioned the police force on implementing its plan to launch its own drug treatment and rehabilitation program.
DDB chair Dionisio Santiago said treatment and rehabilitation should be handled by government agencies mandated by law to do so, like the Department of Health.
“Each agency must contribute to the drug campaign according to its respective expertise and competencies. Otherwise, the anti-drug campaign may be imperiled and the effectiveness and quality of the (rehabilitation) programs may be adversely affected,” he added.
The PNP maintains that since the first day of the Duterte administration, it has put in place measures to stop the proliferation of illegal drugs and criminality and to cleanse the PNP of scalawags.
“The effort against cops involved in illegal drugs is unrelenting (including) ninja cops, protectors, recycling of seized drugs, cops using drugs, etc.,” PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos said.
Critics said President Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs and crime has encouraged summary executions and human rights violations.
Delos Santos was a Grade 12 student who was killed in an anti-drug raid in Caloocan last Aug. 16. Policemen claimed he resisted arresting officers, prompting them to shoot him dead. But wit- nesses said policemen handed the boy a gun and asked him to run before shooting him.