PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday launched another tirade against corrupt police who are the frontline troops in his deadly drug war, after four more officers were accused of kidnapping and extortion.
The arrest of the four from Manila’s financial district of Makati was the latest in a series of scandals involving police that have raised concerns about their suitability to prosecute the drug war.
“I was reading, coming here, another spot report of four policemen again [linked to] kidnapping. These policemen, sons of whores!” Duterte said at Manila airport before flying to Cambodia.
The 160,000-member police force is the main enforcer of Duterte’s 10-month-old drugs crackdown that has claimed thousands of lives and led to warnings he may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.
Duterte admitted early this year that the force was “corrupt to the core” after several anti-drugs policeman were arrested on charges of kidnapping and murdering a South Korean businessman as part of an extortion scam.
Duterte pulled all police off the drug war at that time and vowed to “cleanse” the force. But after a brief lull, he allowed the police to resume the anti-drug crackdown without major reforms.
The force again came under fire last month after a dozen people, mainly drug suspects, were discovered inside a closet-sized secret cell at a Manila police station.
Acting on a tip-off, staff from the Commission on Human Rights, an independent government agency, made a surprise visit to the police station and uncovered the cell.
The CHR on Wednesday recommended the filing of criminal raps against the officers of the Manila Police District for maintaining the hidden jail for accused drug offenders.
In a letter to the Office of the Ombudsman, CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said the MPD personnel involved committed arbitrary detention, grave threats, grave coercion, robbery/extortion and violation of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009.
“The MPD personnel involved are also subject to administrative liability for the above-mentioned violations as well as for their violation of the 2013 Philippine National Police Operational Procedures,” Gomez-Dumpit said.
On April 27, a special team of the CHR-National Capital Region led an inspection of the Raxabago police station 1 in Tondo, Manila, and found a secret detention cell where 12 people had been detained for a week.
“The names of the 12 detainees were not contained in the station’s logbook,” Gomez-Dumpit said.
“Some of the accused claimed the police officers tried to extort money from them in exchange for their release.
“In sum, the CHR believes there is sufficient cause for the Ombudsman to investigate Supt. Roberto Domingo and all PNP personnel of the MPD Raxabago station 1 involved in the matter.” With AFP