Remulla: No special treatment for cops involved in drug war killings

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla. INQUIRER file photo / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla has vowed that police officers involved in extrajudicial killings in the Duterte administration’s drug war will “face the full consequences of the law.”

“There are no sacred cows in this institution and in this investigation. Anyone who is found guilty will be treated like any other person and treated as such,” Remulla told reporters on Monday after his first command conference with the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“They will be accorded no special treatment. They will be accorded no special privileges. Everyone will face the full consequence of the law and the full powers of the PNP and the institutions of the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government),” he added.

The DILG chief explained that while they have done “initial work” and reopened some drug war cases, they will wait for the House of Representatives’ Quad Committee to finish its investigation into the drug war.

“We have to understand that they are innocent until proven guilty. So, we must not judge them already according to testimonies. They have to go through the process,” he added.

At the House quad panel’s hearing last Friday, Oct. 11, retired police colonel Royina Garma implicated National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Edilberto Leonardo in an alleged rewards system for drug war killings.

Garma alleged that Leonardo collaborated with Duterte and his aide, now Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, in creating a task force of “liquidators” nationwide.

She also claimed that Leonardo was briefing Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency officials and PNP chiefs.

Go on Saturday denied involvement in drug war operations and on Monday called for a Senate investigation into Garma’s claims.

Former Duterte spokesperson and presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo dismissed Garma’s testimony as “pure imagination.”

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said Leonardo tendered his resignation from Napolcom on October 4. Remulla confirmed he was informed of it on October 8.