The national police chief said he has offered to resign to encourage nearly a thousand other ranking police officials to do the same to regain public trust after some enforcers were arrested due to illegal drugs, further tainting the police force’s notorious image.
Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr on Wednesday appealed to all police generals and colonels to submit their “courtesy resignations” in a drastic move to improve the police force’s image after law enforcers in the frontlines of the drug crackdown were caught engaging in drug dealing.
Police Gen Rodolfo Azurin Jr (pic) told a televised news conference yesterday that those who would submit their “courtesy resignations” – offers to voluntarily resign from the force – would stay in their jobs unless President Ferdinand Marcos Jr decides to accept their resignation after an investigation.
Azurin dispelled fears of a massive loss of leaders that could paralyse the 227,000-member force.
He also defended the police top brass, saying less than 10 of more than 100 generals were currently being investigated for alleged links to illegal drugs.
He lamented that just a few misfits were ruining the image and careers of a majority of decent officers, including hundreds of full colonels.
“Our organisation is on trial here,” Azurin told the news conference.
The call by Abalos for top police resignations sparked questions and concerns because, for years, an internal police disciplinary office along with a police commission has been investigating and helping prosecute officers accused of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, as well as those accused of crimes and corruption under the government’s anti-drug campaign.
Others said the move could demoralise police officials who carry out their work properly.
“While this process may be outside the disciplinary machinery of the Philippine National Police, this will be undertaken due to the exigency of the situation,” Azurin said.
He asked a five-member committee, which would be formed to assess possible links of police generals and colonels to the illegal drugs trade, to be fair and objective.
The national police force’s image took a blow in October, when a police sergeant was arrested for drug pushing and for helping conceal nearly a ton of methamphetamines, a powerful and prohibited stimulant in Manila.
A regional chief of the country’s main antinarcotics agency and his men were implicated in a brazen drug dealing that happened in his office in December.
The alarming arrests bolstered concerns over a police force that former President Rodrigo Duterte used to enforce his brutal anti-drugs crackdown, which left more than 6,200 mostly poor suspects dead based on police estimates and sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity.
Human Rights Watch said the call for top police resignations could work against the government’s anti-drug campaign.
“It is a cynical ploy that allows abusers to evade accountability, especially because Abalos invoked the defects of the criminal justice and judicial systems to try to justify his idea,” said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch. — AP
