The five-man team tasked to go over the profile of high ranking police officials who have submitted their courtesy resignations
will convene on Monday to start their inquiry, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. announced.
Abalos also disclosed that former Court of Appeals Justice Melchor Quirino Sadang is the fifth member of the panel.
He said the probe was meant to identify who among the ranking police officials were involved in the drug trade.
“The investigation will be underway. The important thing is to remove those who should be removed from the service and the innocent to be protected,” Abalos stressed.
Sadang served as a panel member representing the Department of Justice
in the Revolutionary Alliance Makabayan negotiating panel. He also b came vice executive judge and presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court, as well as a law professor of the University of the East.
The other members of the committee are Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., former National Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Jr., and retired Maj. Gen. Isagani Nerez
The DILG chief made the appeal for the full colonels and generals to voluntarily resign in line with the government’s effort to cleanse the ranks and get rid of “bad eggs” in the PNP. The projected purge stems from the scandal on the so-called “ninja cops” or policemen involved in a money-making scheme through the resale of confiscated drugs. Joel E. Zurbano
Abalos emphasized that being a member of the advisory
group is not necessarily a government post or an appointment.
He clarified that creation of the team was part of a legal process, adding that the panel is merely an advisory group that will make recommendations to the National Police Commission and eventually to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
“There will be no salary (involved),” he said. Joel E. Zurbano