By Aaron Recuenco
The Philippine National Police (PNP) said it does not fear any revelation that Vice President Leni Robredo could have on the anti-illegal drugs campaign being aggressively undertaken by the Duterte administration.
Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan
(PNP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan, PNP deputy chief for Operations, said that, as a law enforcement agency, the police organization was mainly focused on its objective of running after those involved in the circulation of illegal drugs in the country.
"The PNP is for law enforcement, we are for anti-criminality. If it's political in nature, we always do away with it," said Cascolan.
Robredo earlier said that she would release her findings culled from almost three weeks of her stint as co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee Against Illegal Drugs (ICAD).
But unlike the interpretation of many, Robredo earlier said that her findings would be more on recommendations on how to improve the illegal drugs campaign that does not focus on killing drug suspects.
Among the issues raised by Robredo in her stint as ICAD Co-Chair was that more than three years after the drug war was launched, the government still has a vague idea as to how many Filipinos are actually hooked on illegal drugs.
The government also has no program or even no updates as to the more than one million suspected drug pushers and users who have surrendered since 2016.
She, however, deferred the release of her report in order to focus on relief and assistance to earthquake victims in Davao del Sur.
The PNP has been at the forefront of illegal drugs war and has been the subject of criticisms over the bloody operations that so far left more than 6,000 drug suspects dead.
The fatality figure does not include the thousands more deaths allegedly perpetrated by vigilante groups.
"The Vice President has all the right to expose whatever she knows but we have to do our best also with regard to our responsibilities," said Cascolan.
Right now, Cascolan said they will follow the orders of President Duterte as their Commander-in-Chief.
"As long as we have done our duty properly, we have nothing to fear," said Cascolan.
In the past three years, the PNP was accused of blatantly violating human rights which was aggravated by the death of 17-year old Kian delos Santos who was earlier reported to have fight it out with cops but turned out to have been executed by anti-illegal drugs operatives.