New PNP chief Acorda: More good cops than bad cops

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr new PNP chief

Newly installed Philippine National Police chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. has vowed to wage an aggressive internal cleansing, especially those involved in illegal drugs, but maintained there were more good than rotten cops among the 228,000 police force.

“I was assigned as the counterintelligence chief and there were only a few on the list [of scalawag police officers]. I do believe in the statistics that there are more good police officers,” he told reporters in his first media briefing at Camp Crame on Tuesday, shortly after presiding over his first command conference.

He, however, did not elaborate.

Prior to his appointment, Acorda served as the PNP director for intelligence. He was chief of the Counterintelligence Division of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence from 2017 to 2018.Acorda also wanted to have a different take on the popular adage on intelligence work that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” “Instead, let’s do good things to defeat evil. That’s what I encourage the police to do.”

In his assumption speech on Monday, Acorda warned his men and women not to be involved by any means in illegal drug trading lest they be criminally and administratively charged and be removed from the service.

As the 29th PNP chief and the second top cop of the Marcos administration on Monday, Acorda has inherited the unfinished business of his predecessor, Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr.

With only eight months of service until his retirement on Dec. 3, Acorda would have to tie up the loose ends of the controversies surrounding the alleged involvement of high-ranking PNP officials in covering up the arrest of a now-dismissed police officer tied to the almost a ton of crystal meth, or “shabu,” seized in a drug raid in Manila in October last year, and the pilferage of some of the confiscated drugs by agents of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (DEG).

Cover-up

The issue ignited a cold war between Azurin and Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, who made the exposé by showing the public CCTV footage showing the PNP officers during the raid.

Abalos claimed there was an attempt to cover up the irregularities in the operation, but Azurin denied this and defended the actions of his men, particularly of his two handpicked generals—Lt. Gen. Benjamin Santos Jr., who was then deputy chief for operations, the third-highest official in the PNP; and Brig. Gen. Narciso Domingo, who was then the director of DEG.

Two parallel investigations are being conducted regarding the controversial drug raid—one conducted by the PNP Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) 990 and another by the National Police Commission (Napolcom), where Abalos and Acorda sit as ex officio chair and commissioner, respectively.

In its initial findings, the SITG 990 recommended 49 police personnel of DEG, including Domingo, for their violation of Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act. They would also be facing administrative charges for grave neglect of duty and grave dishonesty.

According to Col. Jean Fajardo, spokesperson for the PNP, the recommendation of the five-man advisory body was submitted to the Napolcom on Tuesday. INQ