PNP disputes ‘killing machine’ tag amid Garma’s drug war expose’

(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO /LYN RILLON)

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday disputed  its being labeled a killing machine amid allegations that some members were involved in the killing of drug suspects during the previous administration. 

“We cannot blame them if that is the branding of the PNP, but we hope that the people watching us right now would understand: This is not the norm of the whole organization. There are a few people, yes. These rulings are coming out now, but this is not the norm of the established institution,” PNP Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said in Filipino.

“These are individual choices. If you are given an illegal order, it’s up to you. You should have considered your oath to office that already says you should not follow the wrong orders,” Fajardo added. 

After retired police colonel Royina Garma alleged that police officers were rewarded for killing drug suspects during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno in a Saturday statement said that the former president’s Rodrigo administration turned the PNP into a “killing machine.”

 “This is a sad time for the PNP, for the institution because of the emerging statements and revelations of the alleged involvement of active PNP personnel in these cases. Like what the  DILG secretary said yesterday, we have to be professional. We owe fidelity to our people.” said Fajardo. 

In his first command conference with the police force on Monday, Remulla said police officers involved in illegal activities during the brutal anti-drug campaign who will be proven guilty “will face the full powers of the PNP and the institutions of the DILG.”

PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil, also on Monday, said it has formed a committee to investigate Garma’s claims.

Marbil previously said former chiefs of the national police force should clarify their involvement in Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

 At the House Quad Committee hearing on Friday, Garma claimed that National Police Commission Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, collaborating with President Duterte and his aide, now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, instituted a scheme where police officers will be financially rewarded for killing drug suspects, replicating a “Davao template” on the national scale.

Garma also alleged that Leonardo met with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency officials and PNP chiefs in implementing the plan.

Garma herself was implicated along with Leonardo by a lieutenant colonel in a 2020 plot to kill Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary and retired police general Wesley Barayuga, for which they now face murder complaints, according to Fajardo on Tuesday.

Garma also claimed a police major in Region VII (Eastern Visayas) bragged to her about the 2018 assassination of Tanauan City mayor Antonio Halili.