By Aaron Recuenco
The Philippine National Police (PNP) will run after 'troll cops' who spread fake news about their fellow lawmen currently included in President Duterte's drug watchlist.
Philippine National Police spokesperson PCol. Bernard Banac (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said they are not discounting the possibility that some of the 356 policemen who are currently being investigated for alleged drug links are themselves victims of fake news.
He cited two reasons: First, that some of the policemen in the drug watchlist may have crossed paths with drug syndicates in the performance of their duties and in retaliation, they fabricated reports against them.
This theory was first floated by former PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa over the inclusion of Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido.
As Dela Rosa vouched for the integrity of Espenido, he called on the PNP leadership to also look at those feeding the police organization with wrong intelligence reports.
The second is professional jealousy.
"It is possible that some are indeed fabricating and spreading fake news over personal grudge or personal motives," Banac said in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
This is the reason why the PNP is careful in validating and adjudicating the cases of all the 356 policemen, he said.
Once the adjudication process is done, Banac said they will focus on who were cleared.
The adjudication process is set to be done on March 5 where the result of the adjudication on all 356 cops will be submitted to President Duterte.