Nartatez vows action vs ‘few’ bad cops in PNP amid CIDG-linked case

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. maintained that there were “only a few” erring police officers in the agency after a Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) official was linked to crimes in Negros Occidental.

“This kind of police officer symbolizes termites that threaten to destroy what we [have all] built for the PNP. We will not allow that to happen by exhausting all necessary measures to identify them and hold them accountable,” Nartatez said in a statement on Tuesday.

“There are only a few of them in the PNP,” he stressed.

READ: Remulla names CIDG Bacolod chief as protector of criminal syndicate

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla previously identified the implicated CIDG official as Maj. Edgar Tonico Jr., chief of the police unit’s Bacolod City field office.

Remulla accused Tonico of shielding a criminal syndicate operating a purported illegal cigarette factory and a supposed illegal online cockfighting (e-sabong) hub in Negros Occidental, both of which were raided by authorities last week.

In response, Nartatez said he will “personally monitor the progress of the investigation to ensure that criminal and administrative charges would be filed without sacrificing due process.”

Further, the PNP chief ordered the CIDG and the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group to intensify its intelligence and information-gathering against erring police personnel. /jpv