While the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) agrees that “ninja cops” or scalawag police officers must be removed from service, it stressed that their “lives are priceless, too.”
The CHR made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte said he would give a P5-million reward to law enforcers who kill erring policeman.
READ: Duterte raises bounty for ‘ninja cops’ to P5M
“Ninja cops or scalawags in the police force, the Commission agrees, are a disgrace to the institution and, therefore, must be removed from the service. However, like any human being, their lives are priceless, too,” CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said in a statement on Sunday.
De Guia stressed that there shouldn’t be any price tag on human life and the removal of erring cops’ from service “must not be by death which promotes vigilantism and perpetuates the cycle of violence.”
“Affording them due process and (honoring) their constitutional rights is by no means tolerance of their wrong doings or acquiescence thereto but rather adhering to time honored principles of respect for human rights and the rule of law,” she said.
In a speech in Davao City on Friday, the President again lashed out at scalawag policemen, telling them to shape up or face terrible consequences.
“Policemen have many abuses… I told you to stop it already… for ninja cops, I will raise the amount to P5 million if you bring him to me dead,” the President said.
“If you bring a ninja cop to me alive, I will give you P10,000. I am not joking. If I say it in public, that’s true,” he added. /ee