The courtesy resignation in the police force will only apply to third level officers, or from full colonel to generals, of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. explained that the process of assessment and evaluation by the Committee of Five, as well as its results, will serve as a strong message to all the police uniformed personnel that the organization is bent on purging the organization of those involved in illegal drugs trade.
"There will be no courtesy resignation for middle ranking and junior officers and even our PNCOs (Police Non-Commissioned Officers). The process that all third level officers would undergo is enough to send a strong message that they must stop if ever they are involved in this illegal activity," Azurin told the Manila Bulletin in an interview.
The PNP is composed of more than 220,000 uniformed personnel, 956 of them are full colonels and generals.
Based on the incidents in the past, those that were found to be directly involved were mostly PNCOs, the latest was Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo who was tagged in the P6.7 billion drug haul in Manila in October last year.
While then president Rodrigo Duterte publicly named five generals, not even a single case was filed against any of them.
Of the 956 third level officers, only 11 of them have not yet complied with the call of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos to submit a courtesy resignation.
Azurin said it will take time before the Committee of Five would finish the assessment and evaluation for less than 1,000 third level officers and applying the same strategy for middle-ranking and junior officers, along with PNCOs, would be impractical.
"Instead, we will strengthen our intelligence-gathering and legal offensive against them," said Azurin.
Azurin explained that once the assessment and evaluation of third level officers are done, he expects all those who would be cleared to initiate measures to cascade the cleansing among their men.
"After all of these (assessment and evaluation of courtesy resignation), they will have the moral ascendancy to lead and institute reforms for the welfare of the PNP as our beloved organization," said Azurin.