Graphics by: Samuel Yap / INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines-What happens to law enforcement when the country’s commander-in-chief and his second-in-command are at each other’s throats?
The Philippine National Police (PNP) often found itself caught in the political crossfire in 2024 due to the widening rift between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte, the once-allies who won by a landslide in the 2022 elections.
From ex-cops testifying against the vice president’s father to the manhunt and arrest of Duterte allies, 2024 tested the institution that is the national police force.
Command conferences, not ‘loyalty checks’
Tensions were simmering when Marcos met with the national police force in his first command conference last February. But it was not, according to then-PNP Chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, a “loyalty check.”
READ: Marcos’ 1st ever PNP command conference not a loyalty check — Acorda
The conference came days after rumors of a plot to destabilize the government, following competing rallies of Marcos and Duterte.
On Jan. 28, the Presodent officially launched his “Bagong Pilipinas” (New Philippines) campaign at a rally in the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.
At the same time, Marcos’ immediate predecessor and his vice president‘s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, held a separate rally in their bailiwick, Davao City.
The showdown was fresh after Vice President Duterte backed off in her requests for confidential funds for her offices, following opposition from lawmakers in November 2023.
READ: VP Duterte gives up seeking P650M in secret funds
At the Davao rally, the elder Duterte warned that the incumbent president may meet the same fate as his namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who was ousted in the popular uprising in February 1986.
PNP declared that there was no destabilization plot against Marcos’ administration.
READ: PNP: No plot to overthrow Marcos admin
The same “no loyalty check” line was stressed during Marcos’ second and third command conferences with the PNP last June and this December with the now-incumbent police Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil.
READ: Command conference with Marcos not for loyalty check, says PNP
Pulling out PNP personnel from OVP security
Another point of contention was when the PNP reassigned all 75 of its personnel in the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) security detail, a day after Duterte was a no-show in Marcos’ State of the Nation Address (Sona) in July.
READ: PNP removes all 75 cops from Sara security detail
Prior to the annual address, Duterte made clear that she was not attending the Sona, supposedly appointing herself the “designated survivor.”
Appointing a designated survivor is a protocol in the United States, wherein an official, who would take the place of the president in case of the president’s sudden death, is kept in a secure location when those in the line of succession gather in a single event.
The practice is to ensure continuity of government in the event that the president, the vice president and all other officials In the line of succession are either killed or incapacitated by a catastrophic event.
Duterte’s comment drew ire and ridicule from lawmakers and the public, arguing that the remark was made “in poor taste.”
Diterte defended her statement, maintaining that it was “neither a joke nor a bomb threat” but refusing to clarify what she meant.
READ: Duterte on her ‘designated survivor’ remark: ‘Not a joke, bomb threat’
When the PNP withdrew their personnel from the OVP security detail a day after the 2024 Sona, Marbil explained that the move was because the police force “[doesn’t] see any threat against the vice president.”
READ: Sara Duterte’s PNP security reduced as no threat seen on VP — Marbil
The PNP chief further noted that the personnel were reassigned to reinforce street patrols, especially in Metro Manila.
However, Marbil gave assurance that if Duterte requested PNP personnel, they would add personnel.
The standoff in Davao
Police came within a literal crossfire in serving the warrants of arrest for preacher Apollo Quiboloy, a Duterte friend accused of child abuse, sexual abuse and qualified trafficking.
Davao and Pasig City courts ordered Quiboloy’s arrest in April.
In June, 100 police officers stormed the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) compound in Barangay Buhangin, Davao City to arrest Quiboloy to no avail, with resistance from the preacher’s sect.
READ: 100 cops storm Quiboloy’s home to arrest him but he’s not found
Former President Duterte condemned the police operation as a display of “excessive and unnecessary force.”
READ: ’Excessive, unnecessary force’ used in bid to get Quiboloy — Ex-Pres. Duterte
PNP maintained that the operation was lawful and “in strict compliance with legal security protocols.” It later administratively relieved officers involved in the attempt to serve the arrest warrants against Quiboloy to investigate lapses on their part.
READ: PNP: Serving of arrest warrant vs Quiboloy, others a ‘lawful’ operation
READ: PNP sacks cops who served warrant vs Quiboloy to probe alleged overkill
The police launched another attempt to arrest the fugitive televangelist on Aug. 24, with at least 2,000 officers surrounding the KJC compound, beginning a 16-day standoff with members of the sect which led to injuries in some officers.
READ: 2,000 cops surround KJC complex, arrest warrant vs Quiboloy served anew
READ: Angry mob tests police patience at KJC in Davao City
Marcos urged Quiboloy to face the charges against him, boosting the police’s morale.
READ: Support of Marcos on Quiboloy operation lifts our spirit, says PNP
During the ordeal, KJC members asked Marcos to resign, calling for justice for their embattled leader.
READ: LOOK: KJC members protest vs gov’t amid Quiboloy’s arrest warrant
Following negotiations and the police’s ultimatum, Quiboloy was arrested on Sept. 8 and held in custody at the PNP’s facility in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
READ: Quiboloy, 4 others surrendered after PNP’s 24-hour ultimatum
After he was found with an irregular heartbeat, Quiboloy was brought to the Philippine Heart Center. He was also briefly taken to the Philippine Children’s Medical Center for further testing.
When his medical furlough ended, he was transferred to the Pasig City Jail.
READ: ‘Son of God’ brought to Pasig City jail after hospital stay
Meanwhile, Quiboloy’s supporters who called for action to block the police operation and “attack” Malacañang were charged with sedition by the PNP.
READ: PNP charges Quiboloy supporters with sedition
On the hot seat in Congress
The PNP was also on the hot seat during the House of Representatives’ quad committee investigation into Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), the illegal drug trade and human rights violations during President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
The inquiry was launched by the committees on dangerous drugs, public order and safety, public accounts and human rights.
During the quad comm’s eighth hearing on Oct. 11, retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO) general manager Royina Garma testified that Duterte tapped National Police Commission (Napolcom) commissioner Edilberto Leonardo to implement a nationwide system to reward cops for killing drug suspects.
READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH
The explosive allegation prompted human rights lawyer Chel Diokno to argue that the plan turned the PNP into a “killing machine.”
The retired police colonel also tagged a police officer in the 2018 assassination of Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili.
READ: Garma links PNP official to Batangas mayor’s assassination
Garma herself was implicated during the quad comm hearings, with Lt. Col. Santi Mendoza naming her and Leonardo as masterminds of the 2020 murder of retired general and PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga.
The police force said it will be filing murder charges against Garma and Leonardo.
READ: Garma, Leonardo to face murder raps in Barayuga slay case — PNP
In response to the allegations of a rewards system and cops being involved In high-profile cold cases, PNP maintained that officers breaking police operational procedures was “not the norm.”
READ: PNP disputes ‘killing machine’ tag amid Garma’s drug war expose
Additionally, in his first command conference with the PNP, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the department will be reopening drug war cases, vowing that there will be no “sacred cows” in its investigation.
READ: Remulla: No special treatment for cops involved in drug war killings
The PNP is an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Following the revelations at the lower chamber’s quad comm, the Senate launched its own motu proprio investigation into Duterte’s drug war, with the former president himself in attendance.
During his testimony, Duterte defended his brutal anti-drug campaign and claimed that crime rates rose since he left office in 2022.
PNP countered him saying that the index crime rate dropped by 61.87% from 2022 to 2024.
READ: Index crime rate in PH down by 61.87% from 2022 to 2024 — PNP
In an effort to further distance itself from the bloody approach to end the illegal drug problem, PNP stressed that its anti-drug campaign would be recalibrated to be “rights-based.”
READ: PNP chief says anti-drug campaign to be ‘recalibrated, rights-based’
A shakeup during the hunt for Pogos
Law enforcement’s efforts to shut down Pogos this year shook up the PNP as well.
While the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (Paocc) usually led raids against scam hubs, the PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) executed an operation against a Pogo at the Century Peak Tower in Ermita, Manila last Oct. 29.
READ: PNP uncovers crypto, scam ops in devices from Manila Pogo hub raid
READ: Flawed, PAOCC says of Manila Pogo hub raid
However, foreign nationals apprehended during the raid accused National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Maj. Gen. Sidney Hernia of extortion.
Further, three ACG personnel were alleged to have tampered with closed circuit television cameras at the crime scene as evidence collection was wrapping up.
The supposed anomalies prompted Marbil to administratively relieve Hernia and ACG Director Maj. Gen. Ronnie Cariaga.
READ: Marbil relieves NCRPO, ACG heads over controversies about a Pogo raid
Hernia and Cariaga were subsequently replaced by then-Central Visayas police regional director Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin and then-Southern Police District director Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang..
READ: Central Visayas police chief is new Metro Manila top cop
READ: Yang is PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group chief
The ‘kill’ remark
PNP found itself in the middle of the Marcos-Duterte spat when the vice president threatened to kill the president if she was assassinated,
prompting Marbil to order the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to investigate her remarks.
READ: PNP to investigate VP Duterte’s ‘murder threat’ vs Marcos
The vice president’s comments came amid a Nov. 22 order from the House to transfer her detained chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, from Congress’ custodial facility to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Lopez was cited for contempt for undue interference in the chamber’s separate investigation into alleged misuse of funds by Duterte’s offices.
Just as Lopez was being transferred early morning Nov. 23, she fell ill and was rushed to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) but then moved to the privately-owned St. Luke’s Medical Center before being returned to the government hospital.
While moving Lopez from the VMMC, Duterte and the Vice Presidential Security Protection Group head, Col. Raymund Lachica, allegedly assaulted PNP personnel, according to the Quezon City Police District.
QCPD then filed complaints against Duterte and Lachica for direct assault, disobedience to authority and grave coercion.
READ: QCPD files assault complaint vs Sara Duterte, OVP security chief
Marbil defended the move, maintaining that the complaints were not politically motivated and instead a part of its mandate to uphold the rule of law.
READ: Marbil on filing raps vs Sara Duterte: People must not say PNP is afraid
As tensions swelled, Duterte family supporters gathered at the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) shrine commemorating the 1986 revolt that overthrew Marcos Sr.
PNP reported that supporters were allegedly paid.
READ: PNP: Duterte supporters allegedly promised payment for Edsa rally
‘Spare us from political noise’
Although it opened an investigation into Duterte’s remarks and filed assault complaints against her, amid the widening rift between the president and the vice president, the police force maintained that it would “take necessary legal actions in accordance with the law.”
It also appealed to the public to “spare” the law enforcement agency from “political noise.”
READ: ‘Spare us from political noise’, PNP says amid Marcos-Duterte spat
But with the same political forces and more set to clash in the national and local elections next May, the Philippine National Police may not be out of the woods just yet.
READ: PNP to crack down on private armies, loose firearms for 2025 polls