We share the hope the internal cleansing, ordered recently by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, of the Philippine National Police from full colonels to star rank would result in an undeniably categorical conclusion.
Which means the ranking officials, either by active participation or tacit approval of illicit drugs changing hands, are impeccably clean from any type of attachment or collusion with drug lords and peddlers of illegal drugs.
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., who six days ago submitted his courtesy resignation to Abalos, said 500 to 600 ranking officials from the police force have submitted resignation as part of the internal cleansing.
The move of Azurin, who remains the country’s top cop pending any action by President Ferdinand Marcos and Abalos, is seen as an obedience to the authorities to address the persistent illicit drug problem linking the top echelons of the PNP.
Earlier, Abalos declared the officials will remain in their respective posts and perform their respective duties while being investigated.
The resigned officials will undergo a critical examination by the five-member committee, who include Baguio City Mayor, a retired PNP deputy director general, tasked to screen the courtesy resignation.
The courtesy resignations and the review will help PNP’s future leaders to have a clean slate, which means police officials not involved in the illegal drug trade would no longer operate under a cloud of doubt that some of them “have been suffering (from) since 2016.”
Holding police officers with drug ties accountable was part of the “war on drugs” of the previous administration, with then President Rodrigo Duterte himself accusing active and former police officials of drug links in a speech in 2016.
Through the years, several police officials were charged with drug-related offenses although convictions appeared not enough amid a high death toll of the controversial anti-narcotics drive.
President Marcos Jr. has admitted his administration has long been planning to call on senior police to submit their courtesy resignations in efforts – admittedly a short cut to the long legal processes – to cleanse their ranks of links to the illegal drug trade.
Mr. Marcos said calling for top cops to tender their resignations was his administration’s “different” approach to combating illegal drugs, which was a flagship project of his predecessor.
“We know the drug problem would not happen if it weren’t for some members of the police. That’s why we need to see who are accomplices, who are involved and who should not be in the service anymore because they’re associated with drug lords,” Marcos said in Filipino.
Mr. Marcos said the government is not yet filing cases as it has not yet identified the high-ranking police officers supposedly connected with the illegal drug trade.
Some bright light was seen in the President’s statement when he said “We’ll reinstate those who are clear, and maybe we will have to decide (on what to do) with those who are implicated (as) involved in the drug trade. Maybe in severe cases we’ll file charges.”
Clearly, the process is being done to ensure that the next-in-line officers, or those presently holding key positions, are clean from any type of complicity or connivance in the perennially pestering illegal drug trade.