DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla (left), Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Facebook, PPAB)

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has backed Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla's claim of a “grand conspiracy” within the police force to hide criminal activities.

Barbers is the overall chairman of the House quad-committee (quad-comm), which has made a similar statement regarding the national police force in connection with former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.  

“While I supported the anti-drug campaign of the previous administration as a necessary response to a growing crisis, it is now undeniable that it became a catastrophic failure,” Barbers said in a statement Tuesday, Jan. 14.

“Instead of upholding justice, it opened the floodgates to corruption in the PNP, fostered a culture of impunity that left thousands of innocent lives destroyed, and even allowed recycled drugs to poison our streets again,” he added.

Barbers, who also chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, said the indictment of 30 police officers—including two generals—over a fabricated drug haul in 2022 is “indisputable proof” of the alleged systemic abuse fostered by Duterte’s policies.

“This only confirms what we in the quad-comm have uncovered—the Duterte administration’s reward system turned law enforcement into a criminal enterprise. It prioritized kill statistics and inflated accomplishments over genuine reform and public safety,” he pointed out.

Remulla previously described the fabricated drug haul--falsely presented as a major anti-drug success--as part of a broader conspiracy to conceal the PNP’s criminal activities. 

The DILG--through the National Police Commission (Napolcom)--has supervisory control over the PNP.

Remulla announced that the DILG will investigate drug-related operations from 2016 to 2022, with a focus on the PNP reward system exposed during quad-comm hearings last year.

Testimonies from witnesses, including retired police colonel and former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO] general manager Royina Garma, revealed that Duterte’s administration offered cash rewards for the killing of drug suspects.

Barbers echoed Remulla’s assertion that the reward system fostered widespread malpractice within the PNP. “This reward system didn’t just encourage shortcuts—it bred criminal enterprises within the very institution tasked with upholding the law,” he said.

“Officers fabricated evidence, inflated statistics, and exploited the system for personal profit, while those who should have been held accountable were shielded,” noted the Mindanaoan.

According to Barbers, the Duterte administration’s “reckless policies created the perfect storm for corruption".

“By prioritizing kill statistics over accountability, he turned the PNP into a rogue organization that thrived on shortcuts and blood money,” he pointed out.