THE leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is not only talking tough, but it is also raising the level of the campaign against scalawags and other rogues in uniform.
Particularly those involved in the highly-profitable but illegal drug business and drug-using officers and men of the 205,000-member police agency, which is civilian in nature.
Since July 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte assumed the top political post of the land, a total of 16,839 cops have been penalized under the PNP’s internal cleansing program.
Certainly, the days of the country’s drug-dependent policemen are numbered as the end of the six-year Duterte presidency, which started on June 30, 2016, approaches.
President Duterte is seen to devote his remaining months in office in going after erring public servants and other scalawags in the government service, including policemen.
Before he contracted the dreaded COVID-19 last week, PNP chief Gen. Debold Sinas ordered the pre-charge investigation and summary dismissal proceedings against two more drug-using cops.
With Sinas under quarantine, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo “Guilor” Eleazar, the PNP deputy chief for administration, is now officer-in-charge of the country’s premier law enforcement agency.
In “hot water” are Cpl. Christian Cerado of the Paranaque City Police Station (PCPS) and Staff Sgt. Ildefonso dela Cruz Jr. of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
Sinas said the urine specimens of the two, who were earlier drug-tested, contained traces of methamphetamine. They have been disarmed and placed under restrictive custody.
Hopefully, the government succeeds in transforming the PNP into a drug-free organization before the end of the Duterte administration at 12 noon on June 30, 2022
