Bato takes last tour of 3 PNP offices

MANILA, Philippines — Former Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa took a “sentimental journey” on Wednesday night as he visited the three PNP offices that gave him the highest and lowest points in his career.

Dela Rosa first visited the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) office, which he formed in January 2017 to run after police scalawags.

He said the CITF officers gave him the highest point in his career for their efforts in ridding the PNP of misfits.

The CITF had arrested over 60 police officers accused of involvement in illegal drugs, extortion and other irregularities.

Dela Rosa also greeted the candidates for the PNP Ganda Pulis 2018 before proceeding to his next stop: the Drug Enforcement Group, formerly the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG).

He urged the anti-drug operatives to learn from their previous mistakes and forget the dark chapter in their history, referring to the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo.

Jee was killed at the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame in October 2016 by policemen from the defunct AIDG.

Dela Rosa became emotional and held back his tears when the police officers serenaded him with a song while policewomen handed him roses.

“It came from their hearts so I really felt their expression of gratitude,” he said.

Dela Rosa admitted it was hard for him to hang up his police uniform, which has been a part of his life for more than 30 years.

His last stop was the Caloocan City police station, which came under fire last year amid the killings of teenagers Kian Loyd delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman.

The killings, which happened two days apart in August 2017, sparked public outrage in the government’s war on drugs.

Despite the controversy, Dela Rosa said the Caloocan police redeemed itself when it emerged as the most trusted police station in a survey by the National Police Commission.