Lacson: Dela Rosa defending the indefensible

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Monday sharply criticized Philippine National Police chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, for defending policemen who kept drug suspects in a secret cell, describing his remark on the issue as “very arrogant.”

“I don’t understand why he made that comment. But [just by looking at the circumstances], even without getting any sworn statement, we can see a violation of [the] law,” Lacson said, adding: “In short, he’s defending the indefensible.”

Lacson, a former PNP chief who was Dela Rosa’s superior in the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, said it was “incomprehensible” for Dela Rosa to justify the actions of the policemen who kept the arrested drug suspects in “an unlivable secret prison cell… inside a police station.”

Last Thursday, officials from the Commission on Human Rights were stunned after rescuing 12 men and women kept in a cell hidden behind a wooden bookshelf at a police station in Tondo.

Dela Rosa, however, said he saw nothing wrong with his men’s actions as long as they did not torture the detainees or extort money from them.