PNP too overzealous in drug war, Bato admits

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Friday admitted that they were too overzealous and failed to fully enforce an internal cleansing before taking on the war on drugs.

Dela Rosa also lamented that with the PNP stripped of its lead role in the Duterte administration’s antidrug campaign, rape-slay cases had made a comeback.

According to him, there were fewer cases of rape during the height of the PNP’s all-out drug war.

Dela Rosa told a press conference at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame that should the President restore the lead role in the drug war to the police he would work for the procurement of body cameras.

Body cameras

“We will push for the procurement of body cameras to be issued in all antidrug operatives so that when they conduct buy-bust operations we are transparent,” he said.

Asked if he saw lapses in the PNP’s antidrug campaign, Dela Rosa admitted in Filipino: “Perhaps overzealousness and our inability to cleanse our ranks of opportunist narco-cops affected our campaign.”

The PNP chief assured that they were ready to reassume their old lead role in the drug war, though there was no indication yet that Mr. Duterte would order it.

He also said he approved of suggestions to realign Oplan Tokhang’s P900-million budget to counterterrorism. “We cannot afford to have a repeat of the Marawi siege,” he said.

Though he praised Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon’s proposal to set aside the budget instead for PNP housing projects, Dela Rosa said he would rather take care of the pressing needs of the country.

Rape cases alarming

“More than the personal needs of my policemen, I would rather cater to the pressing needs of the community which are their safety and security,” he said.

Dela Rosa said that the increase in rape cases across the country was alarming.

“Look, when the war on drugs was in full force, did you hear of any sensational rape cases?” he said.

“There is a big possibility that the drug problem is associated to rape cases. Definitely because—who in his right mind would rape and kill a woman and even burn the victim? (You would do that) if you were high on drugs,” the PNP chief said.

He quickly added, “I do not want to insinuate to the public that [drug use] is a reason, but that’s a glaring reality.”

Dela Rosa cited a case in a Quezon City barangay whose residents, he claimed, had been complaining that narcotics peddlers had gone back to the area because police antidrug patrols had ceased.

The President, he said, was also infuriated when he informed him of the rape-slay of 20-year-old bank employee Mabel Cama during the closing ceremonies of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.

He quoted Mr. Duterte as  saying in the Visayan dialect, “Tanaw a (See that)?”

Cama was texting her parents to open the door for her in front of their house in Pasig City when she was taken, raped and then killed by still unidentified suspects who later burned her body.