DIRECTOR General Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, the new chief of the Philippine National Police, answers questions from reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City. JAYMEE T. GAMIL
THE NEW Philippine National Police chief should not just talk tough, he should also make sure he is really the boss and everyone in the organization respects his authority, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said on Sunday.
“There should only be one boss in the PNP,” Lacson said he told Director General Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, who, on taking office on Friday, gave high-ranking police officials coddling drug lords two days to “surrender or die.”
Speaking on radio, Lacson said he spoke to De la Rosa recently. He said he knew him well, as De la Rosa served in the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force that he headed during the administration of President Joseph Estrada.
De la Rosa served as the task force commander in Mindanao, Lacson said.
He described the barrel-chested, bald-headed De la Rosa as “rustic, simple and silent,” but a “doer.”
Lacson, who also served as PNP chief under Estrada, said he also advised De la Rosa, a former police chief of Davao City whom President Duterte promoted over the heads of several higher-ranking officials in the PNP, not to be intimidated by his upperclassmen and to show his leadership.
“Knowing him, I don’t think he will be intimidated by his upperclassmen,” Lacson said.
The boss
The senator said he also advised De la Rosa to show that he is the boss in the PNP and there’s no one else, especially when politicians meddle in the appointment of police chiefs in their hometowns or provinces.
Such interventions happened during the administrations of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III, Lacson said, and that PNP chiefs tend to get approval from Malacañang first before appointing local police commanders.
Lacson said he advised De la Rosa to explain to Mr. Duterte the importance of his authority as PNP chief so that he could discipline his men and implement his policies.
Short of that, lower-ranking police officials will not respect De la Rosa because they owe their appointment to other people and not to the PNP chief, Lacson said.
He also disclosed that De la Rosa had told him that many congressmen had written to him, recommending the appointment of police officials they knew to their districts.
The recommendations had gone through Mr. Duterte and the President passed them to De la Rosa for action, Lacson said.
‘Internal cleansing’
Lacson said he also underscored the importance of “internal cleansing” in the PNP to De la Rosa.
He said he was shocked when De la Rosa told him that before, some PNP officials whispered about their take from illegal gambling, but now the whispering was about the size of their take from illegal drugs.
His advice, he said, was for De la Rosa to press the campaign against drugs, because any slack in the drive could be exploited by the drug lords to put a stop to the police offensive.
Asked about Mr. Duterte’s combative talk against drug lords that could embolden police to take extrajudicial measures, Lacson said he believed it was only “sound bite” and spoken “figuratively.”
Even if Mr. Duterte promised to protect policemen, those policemen know they could go to jail if they break the law, Lacson said.
He said he supported Mr. Duterte’s decision to involve the military in the fight against crime because he did it when he was the PNP chief.
Lacson said he paired police with Marines and deployed them to shopping malls in Metro Manila, resulting in a 70-percent drop in crime incidence in the National Capital Region.
Two governments
He said, however, that he did not agree with Mr. Duterte’s call to the communist New People’s Army to help in killing criminals, as this would be a slap to the face of the government and the judiciary.
“There will be anarchy and a very chaotic situation,” Lacson said, pointing out that the insurgents’ involvement would result in the country having two governments.
“I am not for the use of outside law enforcers to enforce the law,” he said.
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