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Friday, March 29, 2024

Swift action required

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Arriving from a five-day visit to Russia, President Rodrigo Duterte will be greeted, not only by the usual accolades from his drum beaters, but by an urgent call to action to a blight on his vaunted war on illegal drugs.

The President himself referred to this during the Valdai Forum in Sochi, when he spoke of “two generals still playing with drugs.”

He offered no specifics, however. Nor did he say if these generals belonged to the military or the police.

Swift action required

This ambiguity was cleared up later by his spokesman, who said the President referred to Philippine National Police (PNP) generals who have been accused of protecting “ninja cops,” or policemen who resell illegal drugs seized in legitimate anti-narcotics operations.

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During Senate hearings, two former police officials tagged PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde as one of them, and related how in 2016, he sought to intervene in the dismissal of 13 of his men accused of pilfering 160 kilos of shabu during a drug raid in Mexico, Pampanga, in 2013.

In 2017, Albayalde’s men were not dismissed, as they should have been, but merely demoted one rank.

Albayalde has denied any wrongdoing, and attributed the allegations to some form of envy—a motive that doesn’t make all that much sense, given that one of his accusers is now mayor of Baguio City and the other, the chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

The PNP chief also insists that he still has the President’s trust—though such words would have carried greater weight coming from the Palace, not from Albayalde himself.

In the past, the Palace has said the President would let Congress conclude its investigation into the so-called ninja cops before taking any action.

Increasingly, however, it is looking like he can no longer afford to wait.

There is talk that Albayalde, who retires in November, should be allowed to serve out his term, but doing so would suggest that such small courtesies are due, even when the offense is so serious.

If the ninja cops had indeed recycled confiscated drugs, they figuratively took the President’s anti-drug plans and defecated on them. Albayalde, as their superior officer, at best allowed them to do it, and at worst gave them the go-ahead to do it or even cheered as they did it.

Environmentalist that he is, this President has a penchant for recycling garbage—even disgraced officials who have done little to truly serve his government. We can only hope he will not make the same mistake here.

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