Dela Rosa briefs solon on ‘Double Barrel’ campaign

PNP Chief Ronald De La Rosa. EDWIN BACASMAS

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Monday briefed the House of Representatives on the police implementation of the “Oplan Double Barrel, Reloaded,” the intensified and “less bloody” antinarcotics crackdown that has so far left 2,062 drug suspects dead in police operations.

Dela Rosa briefed the House public order and safety committee hearing about the implementation so far of the PNP’s anti-drug campaign which was suspended for one month by President Rodrigo Duterte in January and resumed this month.

READ: ‘Oplan Tokhang’ back nationwide

Dela Rosa vowed before lawmakers that the resumption of the anti-drug campaign would be less bloody now that the PNP is weeding out scalawag policemen from its ranks.

Dela Rosa said the PNP has deployed to far-flung places like Mindanao the so-called scalawag cops who were riding the administration’s narcotics crackdown to eliminate drug personalities who could squeal their involvement in the drug trade.

“Expect less bloody ito. Siguro mga skalawags, hindi makasingit. Ang gumagawa ng mga very bloody operation ay yung mga scalawag na gusto sumakay sa ating kampaniya dahil pinag-e-eliminate nila asset nila na previously inutusan nila magbenta ng droga,” Dela Rosa said, adding that the PNP has filed cases against these rogue cops.

(Expect this to be less bloody. These scalawag cops can’t ride this anymore. Those behind the bloody operations are the scalawag cops who want to ride the government campaign so they can eliminate their drug peddling assets to avoid being exposed.)

In the PNP’s presentation to the lawmakers, at least 7,026,844 houses were visited by the police since the anti-illegal drug campaign started July last year until January 30 this year.

At least 1,181,386 drug personalities have surrendered – 1,102,010 were users while 79,376 were pushers.

Meanwhile, 53,974 were arrested – 25,694 were users and 28,280 were pushers.

There were 2,602 slain drug personalities in police operations during this period, the PNP said.

Meanwhile, during the period from March 6 to 13 or since the resumption of the Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded, there were 10,636 houses visited; 1,351 surrenderers (1,312 users and 39 pushers), 834 arrested in operations conducted, and 23 killed in police operations.

Region 3 recorded 15 persons killed from the Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded, the highest so far.

Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano asked if the PNP has a breakdown on who among those killed were armed in the police operations or had pending criminal cases pending before the court.

Dela Rosa assured the lawmakers that the firearms obtained from the drug personalities killed were properly stored and labeled as evidence.

When Alejano asked for a categorical answer whether or not the police were behind the extrajudicial killings by paying off assassins, Dela Rosa said his leadership does not tolerate summary killings.

READ: ‘PNP paid killers P5,000 per drug user’

“Yung sinasabi niyo na binabayaran ba yung PNP na tao o asset para magtumba ng kalaban, as far as my leadership is concerned, wala po… It’s not sanctioned by the command,” Dela Rosa said.

(What you’re saying about PNP paying its assets to kill the enemies, as far as my leadership is concerned, there is none… It’s not sanctioned by the command.)

The PNP told the House committee that it has recorded 5,844 “deaths under investigation” (or the PNP parlance for extrajudicial killings), of which 4,435 are murder cases under investigation, while 1,409 are murder cases filed in court.

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