The right move.
That's how Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers described Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos's call for all top-ranked Philippine National Police (PNP) officials who have links to the illegal drug trade to submit their courtesy resignations.
“As chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, I am in full support of DILG Secretary Abalos’s call to 'cleanse' the ranks of senior police officers who may have been 'infected' or involved in the illegal drug trade,” Barbers said in a statement Thursday, Jan. 5.
“Hindi natin nilalahat at alam natin na kaunti lang na police officers and maaring pasok sa illegal drug trade. At sa tingin ko, tama lang ang hakbang na tinatahak ni DILG Secretary Abalos upang linisin ang hanay ng ating kapulisan laban sa illegal na droga (We're not lumping all police officers together and we know that only a few have ties to the illegal drug trade. And I think DILG Secretary Abalos is doing the right move in cleansing the police ranks of illegal drugs)," he added.
Abalos said the PNP officials asked to tender their courtesy resignations with the ranks of colonel to generals will be evaluated by a five-member committee, the composition of which will be announced soon.
Barbers said that while there are still no concrete evidence that directly links senior police officers to illegal drugs, it is widely rumored that certain law enforcement officers in the active service get their hands dirty with with narcotics.
The veteran congressman went as far as to call the alleged links an "open secret".
“In October last year, a member of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group identified as S/Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr. was implicated in the storage of nearly a ton of shabu worth P6.7 billion in Manila. Since then, our anti-drug agencies had been quiet in identifying who was the drug lord, the traffickers, the protectors, the coddlers and other cohorts of Sgt. Mayo in the huge drug cache,” he said.
Barbers has been the House drug panel chairman since 2016.