Officers transferred, not fired in robbery and extortion case
Decision fuels concerns about immunity for rogue policemen in Philippines
Three Philippine police charged with robbery and extortion have been transferred instead of suspended or sacked, authorities said yesterday, fuelling concerns about immunity for rogue officers prosecuting President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war.
The announcement of the punishments for the trio came as a Senate inquiry began into the murder of a South Korean businessman allegedly by antidrug police officers who extorted money from his wife.
Critics of Duterte’s drug war, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives, say he has emboldened corrupt officers with his repeated pledges that he will shield police if they are charged for killing drug suspects.
Duterte personally ordered the three officers, accused of extorting a mother and son of 120,000 pesos (Dh8,815; $2,400) last week in Manila, to the violence-plagued south of the country, a police statement said on Thursday.
“This is part of the continuous internal cleansing of (the city police),” Guillermo Eleazar, their police chief in Quezon City, a district of the capital, said in the statement.
“(It) should serve as a lesson for those involved in illegal activities and also a stern warning for others not to do the same.”
Duterte had previously vowed to transfer corrupt policemen to an autonomous region in the strife-torn southern Philippines, where security forces are battling several militant groups, leading to protests from the local authorities.
“We need the best of our country’s police on our side — not the worst,” Mujiv Hataman, the regional governor, said this month.
“Erring law enforcers must be held accountable. Sending them to the (region) is not a disciplinary action, rather it is a move that portrays our region as undeserving of dignified and dedicated public service.”