PNP is ‘most organized criminal group,’ says De Lima

Sen. Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Senator Leila de Lima on Monday dubbed the Philippine National Police (PNP) as “the most organized criminal group in the country.”

“The moment Duterte turned the PNP into a vigilante death squad, its transformation into an organized criminal syndicate has been completed,” De Lima said in a statement.

“The PNP under Duterte can now be considered as the most organized criminal group in the country. When you speak of organized crime in the Philippines, you speak of the PNP under Duterte,” she said.

De Lima issued the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte’s own admission that 40 percent of the police are “corrupt to the core.”

The President, in a press conference in Malacañang past midnight of Sunday, also announced that his anti-drug war would be extended up to the last day of his term in 2022.

READ: Duterte extends deadly drug war

But Duterte’s statements did not sit well with the lady senator, who warned that this latest “incongruence” had “dire consequences. “

“This is why I continue to worry about the state of the President’s mental health. He displays signs of cognitive dissonance not only in his carefree monologues but worse, also in his official pronouncements,” De Lima said.

“This latest incongruence between his factual assertion of a rotten police force on the one hand and his reliance on them to continue prosecuting his drug war as official government policy has dire consequences, which means more killings by corrupt and criminal policemen.”

“And, as the kidnapping of the Korean shows, these criminal acts won’t be limited to drugs, as we have predicted, but will definitely expand to other police ‘cottage industries’ like kidnap-for-ransom and business shakedowns,” the senator said.

De Lima was referring to South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, who was  abducted by anti-drug operatives last October 18 and later killed inside the PNP headquarters.

The senator also expressed doubts on the government’s decision to temporarily suspend its war in drugs to focus on cleansing its own ranks first, saying it could just be part of its “media obfuscation strategy.”

READ: PNP: War on drugs suspended, purge of bad cops on

“Aside from this, we hear contradicting pronouncements from his PNP Chief, Bato dela Rosa, who called for a halt to the drug war pending an internal cleansing in the police force. This can be all part of their media obfuscation strategy,” De Lima said.

“We can no longer distinguish between the truth and the lies when this government speaks from the podium. All of this of course is part of the so-called ‘gaslighting’ strategy of feeding the population with lies they want to believe while exerting control over the people through more lies.”

“In the meantime, the country continues to burn amidst all the administration-sanctioned killings and corruption perpetrated by none other than his most trusted police and DOJ (Department of Justice) officials,” she added. IDL/rga