Purge chief vows to cleanse PNP ranks before Bato retires in 2018

The chief of the newly formed task force that will go after scalawags in the police vowed to do his best to cleanse the ranks of the Philippine National Police (PNP) before its chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa retires from service in 2018.

While at Camp Tomas Pepito in Angeles, Pampanga, Dela Rosa instructed Senior Supt. Jose Chiquito Malayo, chief of the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF), to weed out bad eggs in the police force before he bows out of service on January 21, 2018.

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In front of reporters, Dela Rosa told Malayo, “Kayanin mo before I retire linisin mo ha ang PNP (Do your best to cleanse the ranks of the PNP before I retire).” Malayo replied, “Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir.”

Malayo then told the media, “I’m not saying I can do it already but I’ll give my best.”

The CITF head was formerly the director of Zamboanga City police when it was besieged by some 200 Moro National Liberal Front (MNLF) rebels in September 2013. Malayo gained national prominence when he was abducted by the MNLF rebels and later convincing them to surrender to the authorities.

READ: PNP exec abducted in Zambo siege to lead task force vs rogue cops

Malayo will head the task force the PNP created after it suspended its war against drugs.

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Dela Rosa to cleanse the ranks of PNP after a group of antinarcotics cops abducted and murdered South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside Camp Crame last October.

“For the moment, I need to identify who are our targets then I need to plan out how to execute the neutralizations. We will be using the intelligence approach as well as the tactical approaches,” Malayo said.

The CITF will be composed of 100 “saint-like” personnel, according to Dela Rosa.

“We are still in the process of vetting and I’m trying to recruit personnel (whom) we really know to have proven themselves,” Malayo said.

Malayo, a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s class of 1989 and Dela Rosa’s underclass, said his role as the purge chief will be challenging “because we will be looking at those people who are trained by the government, issued with firearms, and they’ll be using these firearms to perpetrate their criminal activities.

Dela Rosa added that he chose Malayo, who is also a Mindanaoan, because of his “unblemished record.”

“Sa mga nakikita ko sa mga senior officers right now, with his unblemished record at alam kong lalaban ng patayan, hindi ito tatakbo sa gyera dahil laking Mindanao ito. ‘Yung integrity niya nakikita ko, kadete pa lang ito kilala ko na na malinis na opisyal,” he said.

(As I could see among the senior officers right now, with his unblemished record, I know he (Malayo) would fight until his death, he won’t run away from war because he grew up in Mindanao. I could see his integrity and I have known him to be an honest official even when he was still a cadet.)

The CITF will hold office at the now defunct Anti-Illegal Drugs Group at Camp Crame.