Bato tells AI: PNP doesn’t have money to pay cops to kill

PNP Chief Ronald Dela Rosa. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ INQUIRER PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa lambasted the Amnesty International for publishing a report claiming that the police are arbitrarily killing thousands of people in the name of President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war against drugs.

“For all you know, it was released to destroy the reputation of the Duterte administration,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino during an ambush interview in Angeles City on Wednesday.

Dela Rosa also challenged the international human rights watchdog to identify the police officer who claimed that the national police headquarters are paying cops at the frontlines of the drug war P8,000 to P15,000 per target.

“Babarayan ‘yung pulis na nakapatay. Bakit mo babarayan? Ikukulong mo tapos babayaran mo pa (The policemen who killed will be paid? Why should they be paid? They would be put in jail then will get paid)?” Dela Rosa said.

He said the PNP does not have enough funds to pay each cop for every drug killing.

“File a complaint. Ilabas ang tao na ‘yan at dalhin sa Ombdusman para magkaliwanagan tayo. Mahirap na ‘according to, according to.’ Ang PNP wala pong funding para sa mga gano’n (That person should be brought to the Ombdusman so everything will be clear. It’s hard to believe in “according to, according to.” The PNP has no funding for that),” Dela Rosa said.

The AI’s report claimed that the police are profiting from the murder of “poor and defenseless people across the country while planting ‘evidence,’ recruiting paid killers, stealing from the people they kill and fabricating official incident reports.”

READ: AI: ‘Very top of government’ responsible for killings in PH

The AI said the PNP were merely “acting on instructions from the very top of government.”

A Senior Police Officer 1, who conducts operations for an anti-illegal drugs unit in the PNP, also said in the report that the antinarcotics cops were “paid by the encounter.”

“We always get paid by the encounter… The amount ranges from P8,000 pesos to P15,000 pesos,” the officer said.

The policeman alleged that they were “secretly” paid in cash “per head” by “headquarters.”

“If the operation is against four people, that’s P32,000,” the policeman reportedly claimed.

“There’s no incentive for arresting. We’re not paid anything,” the officer added.

Sought for comment, Chief Supt. Camilo Cascolan, chief of the PNP’s Directorate for Operations, also denied that the PNP is paying cops to commit drug killings.

READ: PNP exec on AI report: Cops not paid to kill drug suspects

“There are no such pay-offs. (We) never knew about such thing. We just do our job for the people,” Cascolan told INQUIRER.net.

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