DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 January) — The Davao City Police Office is now focusing on internal cleansing to ensure that none of its personnel is involved in illegal activities, City Police director Sr. Supt. Michael John Dubria said Tuesday.
The move came after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Philippine National Police to suspend its anti-illegal drug operations and work on purging its ranks of rogue members.
Duterte issued the order after some police officers were implicated in the kidnap-slay of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.
Allegations surfaced that the suspected police officers tagged Jee as a drug personality and demanded an amount in exchange for his freedom.
“We will do it through counter -intelligence and we are encouraging the populace to report to us any police officer that is involved in any illegal drug activity and we will file appropriate charges against them, an administrative or criminal case,” Dubria said.
“The cleansing had already started since before so pag-start nang double barrel project may cleansing na, but ngayon based on what had happened on the involvement of some of PNP officers in illegal activity mas na intensify,” he added.
So far, the city’s 12 precinct commanders have not submitted names of police officers suspected of involvement in illegal activities.
“This is the start. Maybe in the next days there will be names that will be reported to us not only by the precinct commanders but also by the citizens,” Dubria said.
Meanwhile, the City Anti-illegal Drug Operation Group has been dissolved as directed by the PNP leadership.
But Dubria said this would not pose a problem since the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is still functioning and “there will be more coordination with the Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
In an interview, PDEA director Isidro Lapena said they will carry out anti-illegal drug operations with help from the AFP.
“For now, aside from the high value target we will also be targeting the street level pusher,” he said. (MindaNews)
