A VETERAN of the Zamboanga City siege in 2013 has been appointed by Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa as head of the newly formed Counter Intelligence Task Force unit that will go after crooked cops.
Dela Rosa said Sr. Supt. Chiquito Malayo, the current deputy of the PNP’s Firearms and Explosive Office, was tapped to lead the CITF with a mandate not only to weed out crooked policemen but also review cases of dismissed policemen who have return to the service.
Dela Rosa said he has ordered Malayo to recruit men of integrity, dedicated to pursue the CITF’s objective—to once and for all cleanse the ranks of rogue policemen.
Dela Rosa created the CITF Monday hours after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the dissolution of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group that was at the center of a scandal following the kidnapping and killing by police of South Korean trader Jee Ick Joo Oct. 18, 2016.
Jee was strangled in Camp Crame, just a stone’s throw away from at the AIDG headquarters.
“He should first recruit his own men that are veterans whose integrity is not tainted,” Dela Rosa said.
After declaring a halt of the war on drugs, Dela Rosa told his lieutenants to concentrate on other forms of criminality while the internal cleansing was taking place.
Malayo is a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1989 and the chief of police of Zamboanga City at the time of the bloody fighting that erupted between security forces and attacking Moro National Liberation Front forces in September 2013.
Malayo was among those taken hostage by MNLF rebels, who used him as a shield as the rebels withdrew from the scene of the battle. However, Malayo was able to reverse the situation and convinced the rebels to surrender peacefully.
A Palace spokesman, meanwhile, said the Duterte administration plans to revive the Philippine Constabulary to continue the fight on illegal drugs.
“Nothing is official yet but I believe the forces will be supplemented,” said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella. “As far as I know, the Philippine Constabulary may be reactivated.”
Abella also said that while the PNP has dissolved its anti-drug units, operations against illegal drugs will continue under the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency or PDEA.
The PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS) continues to conduct investigations into allegations that some policemen were involved in drug-related killings, he added.
Also on Tuesday, the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan welcomed the suspension of the PNP’s war on drugs and its focus on addressing corruption within its ranks.
“The admission by the President that 40 percent of the police force is corrupt is an indication that the drug war will ultimately fail,” Bayan said in a statement.
“The PNP leadership must address the culture of impunity so deeply rooted in the police force,” the group said in a statement.
This is the same mentality that gives rise to the killing of suspects while in detention, the torture of detainees, police violence against peaceful protesters and most recently, murder inside the PNP National Headquarters, Bayan said.
“Impunity did not come about only during the term of President Duterte. It had been around as long as the police have been committing human rights violations and engaging in corruption. Past regimes have failed to hold the police accountable for numerous crimes. We need only to recall the tortures and killings during martial law, the Mendiola Massacre, salvagings, the Kuratong Baleleng rubout, the Dacer-Corbito murders, the Luisita massacre, the Euro generals corruption case, the Kidapawan shootings, Mamasapano and Purisima,” said Bayan.
“If President Rodrigo Duterte is really serious in reforms within the PNP, he must end the reign of impunity and corruption. Top officials should now be held accountable,” the group added.