War on drugs: PNP closely monitoring 22 ‘ninja cops’

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police is closely monitoring 22 “ninja cops” or police officers allegedly involved in recycling illegal drugs seized in operations, PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said Monday.

Albayalde said those on the list of the PNP are three commissioned officers, or those with the ranks of Police Lieutenant to General, and 19 non-commissioned officers, or those with the ranks of Patrolman or Patrolwoman to Police Executive Master Sergeant.

He said the highest-ranked officer on the list is a Major,  the seventh-highest rank for commissioned officers.

“All of these policemen are under strict monitoring. Meron kaming (We have) IMEG (Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group) dito (here). That’s the very reason kung bakit tayo nagtayo ng (That’s the reason why we built) IMEG, to monitor these people and of course to reinforce ‘yung ating (the) counter-intelligence effort being done by our Intelligence Group,” he said in a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City, referring to the police unit tasked to run after police scalawags.

But he also clarified that what the PNP holds is only a watchlist that still needs to be verified.

“Just to be professional about it, it’s a watchlist that needs to be validated. We are not saying that these people are already guilty of the information being lodged against them. That’s the very reason [why] napaka-importante po dito na magkalap ng ebidensya or probably we can operate on them (it is very important to gather evidence or probably operate against them),” he said.

Albayalde said the list already includes the six police officers who Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Aaron Aquino said are linked to the so-called “drug queen,” a politician whose network is said to be selling at least P13.6 million worth of “shabu” in just two streets of Manila in just a week. /gsg

READ: PDEA identifies 6 ‘ninja cops’ linked to ‘drug queen’