VP Robredo hits police for ‘tokhang for ransom’

APPEAL TO PNP Choi Kyung-jin, wife of businessman Jee Ickjoo (right), appeals anew to the Philippine National Police to go after his kidnappers, believed to be policemen involved in “tokhang for ransom.” —LYN RILLON

CEBU CITY—Vice President Leni Robredo expressed alarm Saturday over an Inquirer report that linked a policeman to the kidnapping of a South Korean national, stressing that rogue officers had taken advantage of the government’s war on drugs.

“They’re using drugs as a reason. Lately, it hasn’t been just killings, but also kidnapping, a sort of ‘tokhang for ransom,’” Robredo told a news conference after visiting Cebu City Jail’s female dormitory and the Operation Second Chance Center for children in conflict with the law.

Robredo was reacting to a spate of killings the past week. On Friday, two were killed by motorcyle-riding gunmen in Plaridel town while a man was killed in a drug bust in nearby Malolos city.

Last week, the wife of a South Korean kidnap victim missing since October came forward and linked a policeman to the crime.

“This has become alarming. Alarming in the sense that the rule of law is being disregarded. It’s as if anyone can just take the law into their hands. They no longer follow procedures that need to be followed,” Robredo said. “The message being projected here is giving people the license to resort to violence and that is what we want to stop.”

President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to protect policemen from prosecution in his bloody war against narcotics. More than 6,000 drug suspects have been killed since he took office in July, more than half of whom blamed on unknown vigilantes.