(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte is considering returning the police into the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, after authorities noted a spike in drug-related crimes, including rape, robbery hold-ups, and murder.
The President said that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which only has 2,000 officers, was incapable of doing the job.
“Whether I like it or not, I have to return that power to the police,” he said in a speech on Wednesday night.
Duterte, 72, was elected last year on a promise to eradicate drugs from Philippine society by launching an unprecedented drug war.
-Alarm over rape-slay cases-
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa earlier expressed alarm over the recent spike in drug related crimes, particularly rape-slay cases, after the PNP was pulled out from the government’s drug war.
Dela Rosa noted that when the PNP was still involved in the illegal drugs campaign, rape-slay cases significantly decreased.
“Tingnan niyo naman, malakas yung ating war on drugs, meron ba kayong nabalitaan na ganitong kasensational na rape case?” Dela Rosa said in a previous press conference.
He pointed to the recent rape-slay case bank employee Mabel Cama in Pasig City, and the killing of young couple James Carl de Guzman and Glory Mary Carbonell, who was said to be raped before she was murdered.
President Duterte first ordered the police to take a step back in January, instructing the PDEA to lead after revelations that police officers kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman.
But it wasn’t long before Duterte reinstated the 165,000-strong force, re-launching the war under the name “Double Barrel Reloaded” — so-called for the two-pronged police strategy to wipe out drugs.
In October, he announced the PDEA would again take the helm in the face of mounting public criticism against the police involved in the illegal drugs campaign, triggered by the murder of three teenagers — allegedly by police officers.
Duterte last month admitted that he removed police from the drug war “in deference” to critics including rights campaigners, Catholic bishops and the European Union.
-No date yet –
Neither Duterte nor his spokesman Harry Roque said when the police would rejoin.
Asked about government reforms this time around, Roque told reporters Thursday: “He (Duterte) has also said that by and large, not everyone in the (police) is corrupt and therefore he still believes in the institution”.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)