ECHOES
Johnny Dayang
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos’ invite for police colonels and generals to hand over their courtesy resignations is not a real shocker.
During the Ramos administration, the same gambit was employed but the results were nothing short of
failure.
In this case, however, there are valid observations the Department of the Interior and Local Government must seriously take into account the fact that the same law enforcers under suspicion of being involved in illegal drugs are the same guys who got the green light for promotion from the Commission on Appointments.
Moreover, the police officers who managed to trick lawmakers into confirming their credentials for promotion could be the same individuals behind the notorious “kill, kill, kill” anti-illegal drug campaign that has made global headlines.
It is a matter of public perception that nearly all the generals who became police chiefs during the Duterte regime were beholden to the man who appointed them, suggesting they too could have supported to push to the edge the drive to hunt down and kill small-time drug pushers.
What is unsettling is the fact that most of the police officers affected by Abalos’ order are also alumni of the Philippine Military Academy, making them a coalition of mistahs.
To say that not all cops are crooks is a ruse because graft and corruption perpetrated by officers at the top, like an electric bolt, implicates even innocent law enforcers.
While the lower-ranked policemen are mostly truthful, they are not in the position to question the orders of the higher echelon, in the same way, that the top guns in the police organization are not courageous
enough to defy an illegal order from the presidency.
In short, by adopting a measure that has failed in the past, Sec. Abalos is already admitting failure in the campaign to bring down ‘ninja cops’ and the police officers who proxy for drug lords and international drug syndicates.
Destroying the drug menace is admittedly a difficult mission. Everybody agrees it is a tough job and it needs a drastic option for it to be brought down.
But there are traditional law enforcement wiles the DILG must also look into, like fanning a credible unit,
in cooperation with other trustworthy intelligence groups, to trap clever scalawags.
Also, the philosophy that goes that in order to catch a thief you need a robber to decipher a criminal mind 1s a choice. Law enforcers have always turned to offenders to unravel the operations of crooks. Through conscientious planning, the hunt of drug lords in a cop’s uniform may, hopefully, be effectively
given teeth.*
