EDITORIAL - Reality that police should admit

Even before he retired from the Philippine National Police, Allan Kintanar has admitted that he was already using illegal drugs. Although claiming he never went into drug pushing, he said the packs of shabu that the police confiscated from him were just for his personal consumption.

Kintanar was arrested in a buy-bust operation last February 14 in the town of Argao. At least 32 packs of shabu were reportedly seized from his possession by the police who claimed he has been selling shabu months before his arrest.

Now facing drug charges before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, Kintanar maintained innocence of the crime. The retired policeman, now detained, claimed that no buy-bust operation had taken place in Barangay Poblacion, saying he was just picked up by the police.

A policeman for 22 years, Kintanar was also the subject of a drug operation in Badian town while he was still in active service in 1996, according to Cebu Provincial Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador. But the operation yielded negative result since no drugs were confiscated from him. 

The case of Kintanar is not, however, new in the police service. We all know that the illegal drug trade has been tainting the sacredness of the law enforcement profession, which is supposed to protect the public from any form of criminality.

The PNP service is replete with stories about men in uniform involved in illegal drug activities. In fact, many have been dismissed from service for being in cahoots with bigtime drug syndicates.

Lured by the color of money, many policemen have become protectors of the illegal drug trade. That is why one of the very reasons why illegal drugs thrive in a community is the fact that syndicates have the resources to bribe the police.

This is not to say the proliferation of drugs in Cebu has been largely due to protection from the police.We do not want to conclude that it’s the local police who are to blame for this menace.

But it’s undeniable that there are bad eggs in the police service that are helping drug syndicates ply their trade, a reality that the PNP leadership in Cebu should admit.