Order to make more arrests is unlike drug war’s ‘reward system’ – Torre
File photo of PNP chief Nicolas Torre III (Picture from INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA)
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) Gen. Nicolas Torre III distinguished his order to make more arrests from the “reward system” allegedly perpetrated during the drug war under then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Torre made this statement in a chance interview with reporters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, on Wednesday in response to a question on concerns about his directive for police officers to focus on arrests.
“The quota being discussed there is not arrests. What the House quad committee investigation revealed, those were not arrests. It’s not like that,” he talked about the difference.
“This is something in which, if there’s an investigation, I will not invoke my right to remain silent. I will also not invoke my right against self-incrimination because we’re not hiding anything here,” he stressed.
“And we won’t have anything to hide. If we arrest people, people are alive,” he pointed out.
‘No shortcuts’
In October last year, retired police Colonel Royina Garma testified before the House quad committee that Duterte supposedly ordered the enforcement of a system that paid officers for every drug suspect killed.
Duterte is now detained in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, to face allegations of crimes against humanity for his administration’s drug war.
The war on illegal drugs reportedly killed an estimated 12,000 to 30,000 people.
Torre, then as the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director, led the police team that enforced the arrest warrant against Duterte last March.
READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH
Upon assuming office as the new PNP chief last Monday, Torre said arrests will become a metric to measure the law enforcers’ performance.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) then expressed concern over the directive, saying it “may unintentionally pressure officers to prioritize quantity over quality.”
In a statement on Tuesday night, Torre defended the order, stressing that they were “not encouraging illegal shortcuts nor measuring success solely by the number of arrests.”
Instead, the directive is “advocating for genuine, lawful actions,” he explained.
‘Part of the job’
In the chance interview, Torre doubled down on his directive: “What do you want? If you go to the police, do you want them not to make arrests or to make arrests?”
“Arrests will always be a part of a police officers’ job,” he maintained.
READ: Order to make more arrests not meant to encourage illegal shortcuts – Torre
The PNP chief added that the public may resort to disciplinary mechanisms through their local chief executives, the PNP Internal Affairs Service, the National Police Commission, or the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
In a Palace briefing later on Wednesday, Torre clarified that the directive was not meant as a “quota” that police officers had to meet.
“There’s no quota. For us, the measure there is the reduction and elimination of the threat in our community, the removal of criminals,” he stressed.
The PNP chief further stressed that police should only arrest suspects, not kill them – unless “the officers’ lives were endangered.”
When asked what sanctions awaited police officers who might plant evidence to make arrests, Torre answered, “I will have them dismissed from the service. I will jail them for incriminatory machinations.” /apl
