MANILA, Philippines — Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos called on hundreds of top police officers on Tuesday to submit their courtesy resignations as part of the campaign to cleanse their ranks of the “deep infection” of the illegal drug trade.
Abalos appealed to hundreds of police officers with the ranks of colonel to general to tender their resignation, which will be evaluated by a five-member committee whose composition he declined to reveal.
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“It’s hard to fight in a war when your ally will be the one to shoot you in the back,” Abalos told a news conference in Filipino. “We need to cleanse our ranks. The people who trust us must trust us even more.”
“It is a very radical approach to this problem, but I do believe we must cleanse our ranks,” he said.
Abalos characterized his appeal for top cops to submit their resignations as a “shortcut” to the “lengthy” judicial process of filing cases in court and securing convictions against those involved in the drug trade.
He said police officials should not fear anything if they are innocent and should simply tender their courtesy resignations, adding that it will be “questionable” if they resist resigning.
Besides, Abalos added, the resignations will not be accepted right away. Pending this, police officials can continue serving in their respective posts.
Just last month, S/Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., who was a member of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group, was implicated in the storage of nearly a ton of methamphetamine hydrochloride shabu worth P6.7 billion seized in Manila last October.
PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said a ranking police official brought back Mayo to the anti-drug unit despite his background as an alleged “ninja cop.”