No mercy for ninja cops — PNP chief

MANILA, Philippines — There will be no mercy for so-called ninja cops or police personnel involved in drug trafficking, according to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde.

He issued the statement after three policemen were killed when they tried to fight it out with police operatives during separate operations in Zamboanga City and Infanta, Quezon last week.

“Just as we have promised our anti-illegal drugs campaign to be relentless and chilling, so it shall be. But more so when police personnel are involved, no mercy,” Albayalde told reporters in a press briefing yesterday.

In Zamboanga City, Police Officer 3 Ronald Bernardo and PO2 Maria Oliver Olaso, both assigned with Zamboanga City police station 9, were killed in an encounter with a composite team from the PNP Counter-Intelligence Task Force, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Intelligence Group (IG) and Special Action Force in a drug sting last Saturday. 

Authorities said the two slain policemen immediately opened fire at operatives upon sensing the entrapment.

Albayalde said the operation stemmed from an intelligence packet provided by the IG stating that both policemen were involved in selling confiscated illegal drugs and are known protectors of several drug pushers in Zamboanga City since 2010.

“Sometime in 2016, the tandem reportedly arrested a certain Lao in Barangay Recodo, Zamboanga City and confiscated around four kilos of shabu but they only declared 500 grams as evidence and the rest were recycled,” he added.

Albayalde said the policemen were included in the counter-intelligence watch list of the Directorate for Intelligence and PDEA Region 9 for their involvement in illegal drugs.

Last Aug. 9, PO2 Ian Rey Abitona of the police force of Infanta, Quezon was also killed in a shootout with arresting police officers during a drug buy-bust operation.

Albayalde said the entrapment operation stemmed from intelligence buildup regarding the nefarious activities of Abitona.

Despite his relief from the Infanta police station Drug Enforcement Unit and reassignment to an administrative post, Abitona reportedly continued to run his illegal drug activities in the province.

Albayalde also welcomed the increase to P5 million the monetary reward for information that could lead to the immediate arrest of ninja cops.

CHR protest

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has slammed President Duterte’s statement that ninja cops or police scalawags involved in drug trafficking should be summarily executed.

“Ninja cops… the commission agrees, are a disgrace to the institution and therefore must be removed from the service,” lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, CHR spokesperson, said in a statement issued the other day.

“However, like any human being, their lives are priceless too and should not be equated to any amount, however low or exorbitant it may be,” she pointed out. 

“Their removal from service must not be by death, which promotes vigilantism and perpetuates the cycle of violence, worse the breakdown of the rule of law, but by due process, which will afford them recognition of their rights,” De Guia explained. 

“Affording them due process and their constitutional rights is by no means tolerance of their wrongdoing nor acquiescence thereto but rather adhering to time-honored principles of respect for human rights and the rule of law,” she added. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Gilbert Bayoran