Stripped of role in ‘drug war’, PNP revert focus on street crimes, anti-terrorism

Philippine National Police at Camp Crame Headquarters in Quezon City. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA)

The Philippine National Police (PNP) will focus its operations on preventing street crimes now that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has been tasked as the sole agency to carry out the Duterte administration’s “drug war”.

“We will focus our law enforcement activities on decreasing our street crimes as this is where we are perceived by the community vis a vis our initiatives and efforts,” PNP deputy spokesperson Supt. Chai Madrid said in a statement on Thursday.

PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, meanwhile, said that the PNP’s Drug Enforcement Group will not be abolished but its duties will be limited to forwarding drug-related intelligence information to PDEA.

“Everything they have right now, everything they are developing, this will be forwarded to PDEA,” Carlos said during a briefing.

The PNP said it will also now focus on anti-criminality, internal security operations as well as and anti-terrorism after they were stripped of their controversial role in the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive for PDEA to become the single agency tasked to carry out the so-called war on drugs came after an independent survey showed deterioration in his approval and trust ratings by the public, which was believed to be due to the vicious drug war.                                                                      /kga