After three years of the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs, Filipinos may feel it is uncharacteristic of the Philippine National Police to invoke phrases like “due diligence,” “protecting the rights” and “undue persecution.”
And yet, these words appear in the PNP statement reacting to the Senate’s authorization of the Blue Ribbon Committee to make public information from an earlier executive session when some 19 police officials were tagged as “ninja cops.”
“Ninja cops” are high-ranking policemen involved in recycling drugs that have been seized in police operations.
The senators voted 17-0 to reveal the names of the rogue cops behind what is known as the Agaw-bato scheme.
The cops were supposedly named by the former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, now Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who also said a high-ranking police official was protecting his subordinates in the drug scheme.
Then again, the Blue Ribbon Committee might not even be the PNP’s biggest concern; the Palace is said to be consolidating the names of the erring cops before President Rodrigo Duterte himself announces who they are.
The plea of the PNP to protect the rights of its cops who may be included in the list smacks of hypocrisy when, just a few months ago, its leadership threw its complete support behind the naming of individuals in a so-called narco-list—never mind the quality and reliability of the vetting process used to come up with the names.
The existence of these ninja cops do undermine and make a mockery of the Duterte administration’s war against drugs. Policemen are supposed to be at the forefront of implementing it with the best intentions.
In the past three years, the PNP has been under scrutiny from various sector and even by the international community for its zeal in implementing the President’s war. Cops have been portrayed as indiscriminate and unforgiving in their drive to put away drug pushers.
That they themselves profit from the fruits of their extraordinary labor is a travesty of law and order they have sworn to uphold.
The PNP, as enforcers of the law, should be held to a higher standard in the battle against illegal drugs and corruption. Let’s hear who these erring cops are—and set them as examples among their colleagues on how not to do the job.
