MANILA, Philippines - For the Philippine National Police (PNP), the second half of 2016 saw the bloodiest war the organization ever waged against illegal drugs.
The war has claimed the lives of over 6,000 people, including so-called drug personalities, across the country.
Right after his assumption to duty in July, PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa launched Oplan Tokhang (Toktok-Hangyo or Knock and Plead) in a bid to wipe out the drug menace and fulfill President Duterte’s commitment to end criminality in the country in the next two to three years.
Oplan Tokhang was hatched when Dela Rosa was police director of Davao City from 2011 to 2013, where it was successful.
When Tokhang was carried out all over the country, reports of drug lords, pushers and addicts slain daily made headlines not just locally but internationally.
As the government agency at the forefront of the anti-illegal drug campaign, the PNP has the full support of the President.
For Duterte and his supporters, policemen are heroes risking their lives to answer the call of duty in addressing the problem on illegal drugs, which the Chief Executive said has destroyed the lives and future of 3.8 million Filipinos.
The President has been giving cash rewards to policemen wounded during anti-illegal drug operations.
Villains or heroes?
But whether policemen are heroes or villains depends on one’s perspective.
Human rights advocates consider policemen as villains, acting as law enforcers, prosecutors, judges and executioners rolled into one, with little or no regard for human rights and due process of law.
They have refused to believe the stories of police operatives that “victims resisted arrest and fired at them” and policemen had to shoot back in self defense.
They claimed that the government’s anti-drug drive is a war against the poor since only a few “rich” fall at the hands of police.
“Slain drug personalities are usually poor individuals living in depressed areas in the country who have no money or can be easily intimidated by law enforcers not to press charges in court,” a human rights advocate said.
Recently, Dela Rosa announced that the PNP has accounted for 70 percent of 1.8 million personalities in its drug watchlist based on the official record of the Dangerous Drugs Board.
The President had claimed that on the estimate of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), there are now some four million drug users in the country.
Dela Rosa, however, clarified that the 1.8 million drug addicts, pushers and users being declared by the PNP is based on 2010 DDB records, or only half the number of addicts being claimed by Duterte.
Among those on the list were slain Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa and couple Melvin and Meriam Odicta, all named by the President as drug lords.
Espinosa and his son Kerwin and the Odicta couple were known drug distributors who sourced their supply from Chinese drug lords locked up at the New Bilibid Prison.
Ironically, known Chinese drug lords, manufacturers and creators of shabu laboratories in the country, have eluded the radar of drug enforcement officials.
The Odictas were assassinated at Caticlan Jetty Port, Barangay Caticlan, Malay in Aklan on Aug. 29, a few days after the couple met with Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno to deny their alleged link to illegal drugs. They maintained their wealth came from hard work.
Espinosa, on the other hand, surrendered to the PNP chief after Duterte ordered a virtual shoot-on-sight against him and his son Kerwin for allegedly being “drug lords” in the Eastern Visayas area.
The elder Espinosa, with his wife and daughter, initially enjoyed protection at the White House, official residence of the PNP chief, until they were forced to go back to Albuera after Kerwin failed to surface and face illegal drug charges.
The mayor sought protection and stayed at the Albuera police station for fear of his life. But it did not last long after a judge ordered his arrest and detention at the Leyte Provincial Jail in connection with the series of police raids conducted at his house, where huge amounts of shabu and high powered firearms were seized.
While Espinosa was in jail, the group of Chief Insp. Marvin Marcos secured and served a search warrant against the jailed mayor in a pre-dawn raid. They claimed Espinosa tried to put up a fight against the arresting police officers, who were forced to kill him.
The story of Marcos’ group was met with criticism by various sectors. Police have yet to conclude the case as the National Bureau of Investigation found prima facie evidence against Marcos and his subordinates.
Before this incident happened, Dela Rosa had ordered the relief of Marcos and his men for being linked to illegal activities, but the President ordered the group’s reinstatement.
A few days later, Marcos’ group served the arrest warrant on Espinosa in his jail cell, which led to the alleged firefight and the mayor’s death.
The PNP leadership placed all 18 cops led by Marcos under restrictive custody.
Before Espinosa’s death, Kerwin was arrested in Abu Dhabi after concerned overseas Filipino workers tipped authorities about his presence there.
Kerwin was eventually brought home by elements of the Anti-Illegal Drug Group.
He claimed to have revealed all the information about his drug trade and accused Sen. Leila de Lima of receiving P8 million from him as protection money. De Lima denied the charges.
Kerwin’s lawyers are now working to make him a state witness.
Internal cleansing
Dela Rosa admitted that one of the aspects that he would improve and give priority to in 2017 will be the internal cleansing of the police ranks.
He called some policemen “Ninja cops” for engaging in anti-drug operations, extorting money from arrested suspects, declaring less than half of their seized contraband and re-selling or recycling the rest to their designated drug pushers.
Dela Rosa admitted to The STAR that a former PNP chief told him he was too focused on criminals outside, forgetting the criminals within the organization.
“Internal cleansing. Marami pa kaming dapat linisin (We still have to do a lot of cleaning). Yan ang i-expect nyo sa 2017 (expect that in 2017), more heads will roll for scalawag policemen,” said the PNP chief.
So far, only 174 of the 160,000 members of the PNP were found positive of using illegal drugs, the PNP said. The policemen are now facing summary dismissal proceedings.
In July, four members of the anti-illegal drug units of Northern Police District were relieved from their posts after being implicated in a “hulidap operation” against a businessman in Laguna.
On orders of Dela Rosa, 32 policemen, including seven police officials, in Metro Manila were sent to Mindanao for being alleged “Ninja cops.”
Dela Rosa said he has a list of rogue cops involved in criminal activities and he vowed to get rid of them.
As part of the “cleansing,” the PNP referred to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) the case of the alleged “narco-generals” named by the President: retired police general Marcelo Garbo, retired general and Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot, former National Capital Regional Police chief Director Joel Pagdilao, former Quezon City Police District director Chief Supt. Edgar Tinio and former Western Visayas police director Chief Supt. Bernardo Diaz.
All denied the accusation of the President while the Napolcom has yet to conclude its investigation on the case.
On July 1, former PNP chief Ricardo Marquez opted to retire two months ahead of his mandatory retirement on Aug. 18 to give way to Dela Rosa, the personal choice of President Duterte to head the PNP.
Marquez said the PNP made significant accomplishments against illegal drugs and street crimes through Lambat Sibat, an anti-crime campaign and “one-time-big-time” which resulted in the arrest of hundreds of criminals.
As early as March, the PNP claimed that crime rate was on a downtrend.
Novotel generals, scalawags
In March or two months before the May elections, four police generals were seen in the company of a staff of then presidential candidate Mar Roxas at a hotel in Quezon City.
Then Deputy Director General Generoso Cerbo Jr., chief of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence, and Chief Supts. Rainier Idio, Ronald Santos and Bernardo Diaz were spotted in the company of a supporter of Roxas, including Garbo.
All the four police generals, who belong to Philippine Military Academy Class ’84 that adopted Roxas as their “mistah,” were put on floating status with no specific task for several months but are receiving salary from the PNP.
In February, the PNP leadership relieved the chief of the Firearms and Explosives Office and 14 subordinate personnel for alleged involvement in the questionable processing and issuance of License to Own and Possess Firearms (LTOPF) for P15,000.
The LTOPF applications were processed despite the absence of applicants and appropriate document requirements.
In January last year, police arrested Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino, who served as head of a special unit of the PDEA five years ago, when he was found inside a townhouse in Manila from where some 60 kilos of shabu were seized.
Marcelino, former head of the PDEA Special Enforcement Service, and his companion Chinese national Yan Yi Shou, 33, were arrested inside a unit of the Celadon Residences in Sta. Cruz, Manila while allegedly in the act of preparing to pack the shabu.
He claimed that he was an undercover agent, although he could not fully explain what authority he had or office he was working for. A Manila court reportedly recently issued a warrant for his arrest.
Dela Rosa vowed to further intensify the anti-illegal drugs drive and other anti-crime efforts of the PNP to ensure that Filipinos would live in peaceful and secure communities.
