President Duterte said he would not be surprised if some police officers were involved in the disappearance of several sabungeros, adding that scalawags in the service cannot be avoided.
"I'm not surprised. I'm sure you are not also, kasi minsan may mga krimen na hindi puwedeng mangyari kung walang participation ng pulis," Duterte told Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos.
Duterte made the remark during his "Talk to the People" public address aired Wednesday morning, March 30, after Carlos said that investigation is still ongoing on the case of missing cockfighting enthusiasts.
"I'm not saying that yung pulis na (the police officers who) were named in the Congressional investigations . That would be too early. But in the past, if you go into the hindsight of things… sabi ko na noon na problematic talaga itong police sa karami kasi (I have been saying that the police force is problematic because there are so many officers)," he explained.
The President admitted that having a few bad eggs in the service cannot be avoided as it is also hard to instill discipline in everyone in a big organization like the PNP.
"In an organization, talagang may scalawags and dito sa atin ang magsakit ang ulo natin (there are really scalawags and they are our headache) because they are empowered to enforce the law… That would make them really very easy to commit crimes kung nagkaloko-loko yung panahon (especially in difficult times)," Duterte said.
"Sa karaming tao na i-supervise mo, kung maaari lang talagang araw-arawin mo. Mayroon talagang mga gago (There are so many people to supervise, and hopefully we can do it everyday. Those fools are really there sometimes)," he added.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive congratulated Carlos on how he handled the PNP, and at the same time "sympathized" with him amid the issues facing by some police officers.
"I congratulate you for the handling of an organization that's so huge that I said you cannot discipline everybody. You cannot answer for all the things that they do because simply the organization is just too big for you to handle," he said.
"Kung lahat ng kaso pakialaman mo, mabubuang ka at alam namin ‘yan (If you will interfere with all the cases, you will get crazy and we know that)… I sympathize with you. But for anything that I can do before I go out, please, just let me know," Duterte added.