Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
It’s a shame that Filipinos these days seem to be more scared of the police than of drug addicts as a result of “tokhang-for-ransom” cases, Vice President Leni Robredo said on Friday.
“Now many people are asking, ‘who do you fear more: drug addicts or the police?’” she said in reaction to the simmering controversy involving police scalawags who allegedly used the government’s bloody war on drugs to extort and kill innocent civilians.
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“It sounds bad to the ear. It’s hard to swallow because we know that many fine members of the institution are being dragged down [by this perception],” Robredo said in an interview with local media in Bulacan, a transcript of which was sent to Manila reporters.
She said it was upsetting to see the reputation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to be so tainted, especially so as the widow of former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, who once supervised the police force.
“I still think that the PNP has improved, to an extent, and many PNP members are still firm in their determination to help,” Robredo said in Filipino.
She said she herself had served as chair of the PNP’s regional advisory board and knew personally how incorruptible and hard-working many of its members were.
But unlike some government officials who had sought the resignation of concerned authorities, she said she did not believe that was the correct response.
“(Resignation) is not the solution, although they must be taken to account, because it is our responsibility as leaders to take responsibility for our office,” she said.
“The solution we’re looking for is to make the culprits pay, to punish those responsible, to clean the institution so that the trust of the public will be restored,” Robredo said.
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She said it was not enough to reassign erring officials elsewhere without charges, or to dismiss them without criminal liability.
“Because unless this [controversy] is addressed, the people’s belief in the institution will be eroded,” Robredo said. IDL/rga