President Rodrigo Duterte has his own sources of information when he said 9,000 policemen were involved in illegal drugs, Philippine National Police Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald Dela Rosa said on Monday.
“Some of them galing sa amin, pero ‘yung sabi 9,000, compilation niya ‘yun (Some of them are from us, but the 9,000 is his compilation) from PDEA [Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency], NBI [National Bureau of Investigation], Armed Forces, civilian intelligence and other government agencies. Basta sa PNP nagco-contribute kami (We at the PNP are also contributing),” he told reporters in an ambush interview.
READ: 9,000 cops into drugs – Duterte
The PNP chief said that 2 percent of 175,000-strong PNP are involved into drugs, a little higher than the President’s estimate.
“Sabi ko dati, mga 2 percent; ngayon ‘yung sinabi niya 9,000, so more or less 5 percent…. Basta within the range pa din,” Dela Rosa said.
(I said before that it’s 2 percent; now he’s saying 9,000, so it’s more or less 5 percent…. It’s still within the range.)
Duterte claimed last week that 9,000 members of the PNP are into illegal drugs, which makes the illegal drugs problem harder to solve.
“Kasama sa 9,000 ‘yung nagpapabaya. Grabe ‘yung alam niyang transaksyon ng droga sa area niya pero wala siyang ginagawa,” Dela Rosa said.
(The ones who are neglectful are part of the 9,000. They know so much about the drug transactions in their area but they’re not doing anything.)
The drug problem among policemen is hard to address but the PNP chief said they are doing their best.
“Makikita niyo every now and then may nahuhuli ang CITF [Counter-Intelligence Task Force] na kapwa naming pulis na sangkot sa droga. Kung sabihin mo totally na ma-address, I don’t think so…. At least ‘di tayo nagbibingi-bingihan, we address the problem head on,” he said.
(You can see that every now and then, the CITF would arrest our fellow policemen who are involved in drugs. If you say it can be totally addressed, I don’t think so…. At least we don’t turn a deaf ear to it, we address the problem head on.) /je