More ‘narco cops’ from NIR sent to Mindanao

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Policemen, who were named by arrested top drug personality Ricky Serenio to be receiving protection money from his drug group, will be re-assigned to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao once the Internal Affairs Service files charges against them.

Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, regional director of the Police Regional Office-18 (Negros Island Region), made this announcement, saying that the relieved policemen from the NIR are most welcome at the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where its regional director said the region lacks personnel, especially Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi.

Serenio—now in custody of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency consultant Magdaleno Peña and son, Pulupandan town Mayor Miguel Peña, and Senior Inspector Alfred de Leon, Pulupandan Police chief—linked 35 policemen to the illegal drug trade.

Six police non-commissioned officers, who Serenio said were receiving protection money from the Berya Drug Group, had been relieved from their posts and transferred to the PRO-18 headquarters, pending investigations by the Internal Affairs Service on the allegations against them.

More than 40 policemen from NIR were reassigned by Camp Crame to Mindanao and Luzon, pending investigations on alleged drug links.

Reports of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management however said that 15 police officers from NIR failed to report to their assignments, and were marked “absent without official leave (AWOL). (FREEMAN NEWS)