PNP watching 22 cops for drug pushing

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police is monitoring 22 policemen who are on its watch list of suspected drug pushers.

PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said in a briefing on Monday that of the 22, three were officials (a major and two lieutenants) while the rest were noncommissioned officers.

Originally, the PNP was monitoring around 87 policemen but the others were cleared after further validation, Banac added.

In what the PNP said was part of its continuing crackdown on scalawag officers, a retired lawman with alleged links to at least 10 so-called ninja cops was killed on Monday by policemen in Novaliches, Quezon City.

Speaking to reporters, Maj. Robert Reyes, PNP-Integrity Monitoring and Evaluation Group (Imeg) spokesperson, said that they were now tracking the supposed accomplices and activities of Cpl. Tirso Lactaotao.

Police believes that Lactaotao, a former intelligence operative of the Rizal police, has been distributing recycled drugs that had been seized in police antidrug operations in Manila and the Central Luzon and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon province) regions.

But the police report on Lactaotao’s death said that only two sachets of crystal meth, locally known as shabu, were found in his possession after he supposedly shot it out with Imeg officers during a buy-bust operation.