PNP chief wants more body cameras for cops

FILE: PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa (Photo: Philippine National Police/ Facebook)

MANILA — Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, said that should President Rodrigo Duterte reconsider and again give the police the lead in the ongoing anti-drug campaign, he would push for more body cameras for operatives deployed for the mission.

“Pipilitin namin na ma-procure namin yung body cameras para ma-issue namin sa lahat ng aming anti-drug operatives. Para kung sila ay mag-conduct ng buy-bust operations, transparent tayo. Kapag mabalik kami sa war on drugs, dapat mabili na namin yung aming body cameras (If we are reassigned to the war on drugs, we will see to it that we procure body cameras that will be issued to our operatives, so that when they conduct buy-bust operations, everything would be transparent),” dela Rosa said Friday.

Duterte earlier placed the PNP on the sidelines of the anti-drug campaign after three teenagers were reported to have been killed in police operations.

The President gave the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency the lead role in the anti-drug drive.

Dela Rosa said that in hindsight, their overzealousness and failure to rid their ranks of scalawags had affected their campaign.

“Ang pagkakamali namin? Siguro yung sobrang gigil. Inaamin namin na hindi pa rin namin totally na-cleanse yung aming ranks before we waged the war on drugs. Dapat sana na-cleansemuna namin yung aming ranks bago kami bumanat sa war on drugs, para hindi masakyan ng mga hunyango na mga narco cops, mga ninja cops yung aming operations (Our mistake? Perhaps we were too eager. We admit that we have not totally cleansed our ranks of bad eggs before we waged the war on drugs. We should have done that to prevent these ninja cops from riding on the anti-drug campaign),” he added. (PNA)