MANILA – Police officers accused of recycling illegal drugs seized in operations and erring government officials should be slapped with administrative sanctions, President Rodrigo Duterte said.
Duterte on Monday added that he wanted the Department of the Interior and Local Government to sanction the “ninja cops” and erring government officials.
“Ang procedure ng gobyerno ganito, pag may mademanda, if there’s a wrong done, usually the department concerned must investigate. Itong sa police it’s Año, administrative,” Duterte said.
“Itong mga police, the ninja, and everybody else in government, you must deal first with the department where you belong and I expect the department to impose administrative sanctions. Then, the administrative proceeding may mete out a punishment of separation,” he added.
Duterte said he will leave it to the Office of the Ombudsman to pursue criminal liability against the alleged rogue police officers.
He added he could not adopt the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s findings on the “ninja cops” because “the Senate is not under me nor am I under the Senate.”
“So kung ano ‘yung imbestigasyon nila rebyuhin ko at kung tumama naman sa lahat on all fronts, to a T, then I will just adopt some but not all. Maybe in form or in whatever in the definition of the crimes to make it more clear sa magbasa ng kaso,” Duterte said.
The ninja cops allegation had forced Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde to resign just weeks before his retirement on Nov. 8. Albayalde, who was the Pampanga police chief at the time, was alleged to have intervened on behalf of the ninja cops and prevented their separation from the police force./PN
