CEBU CITY—Displaying the same tough stance taken by President Duterte and his superior, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, the new police director for Central Visayas has warned those in uniform who are involved in illegal drugs: “Stop it now or I’ll chase you down!”
Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, a former PNP Special Action Force chief, revealed a list of scalawags in the police force who, he said, were “protectors” of illegal drug syndicates. He didn’t mention names but said everyone on the list would be investigated.
Taliño took over the police regional office during the turnover ceremony on Monday. He replaced Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr.
“We will not succeed in our campaign against illegal drugs if there’s one or two policemen who are involved in the trade. What we need to do first is to clean our ranks from scalawags,” he said.
He said he would also give priority to securing support from the communities, local governments, and media to eliminate illegal drugs and criminality in Central Visayas.
A weekly assessment of the performances of all police chiefs and directors in the cities and provinces in the region is being planned, Taliño said. Those who fail to meet the target will be relieved from their posts, he added.
Taliño echoed President Duterte’s program to eradicate illegal drugs, criminality, and corruption in three to six months. This could only be achieved if all sectors of government, including ordinary citizens, cooperate, he said.
The officer, a native of Pangasinan province, said he knew how drug syndicates were operating when he was assigned to the narcotics command in the early 1990s.
Reports of police officers coddling drug lords did not escape Taliño’s warning.
“Are there police officers in the region who are involved in illegal drugs? I saw our friends from the media nod. If there are, this is my advice to you: You better stop it now. And when I say now, it’s now. Stop it!” he said.
“If you love your family and the police service, you stop it now. I and good police officers will run after you. The PNP is our bread and butter so we must love it,” he added.
Any policeman who wants to be spared may approach him and admit their involvement because it is better to surrender than be dismissed from the service, jailed or killed in an operation, Taliño said.
Taliño has been known as the combat-tested officer-in-charge of the SAF who gave a moving eulogy for the 44 members of the elite unit who died in the botched antiterrorist operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province in January 2015.
Last year, he took over the helm of the SAF after Director Getulio Napeñas was relieved, pending results of an investigation being conducted then by a board of inquiry.