‘Legitimate’ anti-drug operations effective, says Napolcom official

Rogelio Casurao, vice chairman and executive director of the Napolcom. (Photo from the Facebook page of Napolcom)

Following criticisms that President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs was failing or bound to fail, an official of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) said on Wednesday that legitimate operations against drug personalities had been effective in reducing crime volume.

In a television interview, Napolcom Vice Chairman and Executive Commissioner Rogelio Casurao said that if one were to exclude the extrajudicial killings, the antidrug drive not only resulted in destroying drug apparatus in communities but also made the people safer.

“The crime volume went down,” Casurao said. “It was very much worth it. It could be a bitter pill to swallow, a sad and unfortunate event in the history of the country, but if you quantify it, less the irresponsible killings, to me there is a value. Just remove the intentional killings, those with no legal ground, let’s just consider legitimate operations.”

The Napolcom official added that, just because people were getting killed in the drug war did not necessarily mean the government was bad or failing.

In the first place, he added, the antridrug drive was part of the government’s duty to protect the people.

“Any state has the right to protect itself [and its citizens],” he said. “We should not measure an administration’s inefficiency because there were lives lost. It’s enshrined in any sovereign state to get rid of the misbehaving citizens to protect the others who are not misbehaving. It’s that simple.”

Before the President suspended the campaign of the Philippine National Police (PNP) last month, about 2,500 were killed in legitimate drug operations, supposedly after fighting it out with the lawmen, since July 1 last year.

There were also about 4,500 deaths recorded last year, but the PNP said most were ordinary murders and homicides and not necessarily extrajudicial killings or vigilante-style killings.

Following the suspension of the antidrug drive, the PNP is focusing on “internal cleansing” to rid the agency of rogues and scalawags who are taking advantage of the campaign to extort or commit human rights violations.

Casurao said the Napolcom was doing its part to expedite the cases against erring cops. In December, alone, he said, the commission handled 700 administrative cases involving policemen.

He said the national and regional internal affairs services of the PNP, the office of the PNP chief, the Ombudsman, and the various People’s Law Enforcement Board are also handling cases involving policemen.

Asked if the thought President Duterte’s estimate that as much as 40 percent of the 165,000-strong PNP was “rotten to the core,” Casurao said he believed the chief executive had a basis to make the estimate if one would consider the 10-year data regarding cases involving policemen. /atm