PRRD castigates sacked Bacolod police execs over drug allegations

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the unveiling of the marker for the Mella Hotel Las Piñas located at the C5 Extension in Barangay Pulang Lupa, Las Piñas City on December 13, 2018. REY BANIQUET/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has castigated relieved Bacolod police chief Senior Supt. Francis Ebreo and four other cops over their involvement in the illegal drug trade, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo confirmed that the President on Tuesday afternoon met Ebreo, Supt. Allan Macapagal, Supt. Ritchie Yatar, Supt. Nassrudin Tayuan, and Senior Insp. Victor Paulino and expressed frustration over the cops’ failure to determine drug personalities in Bacolod City.

“PRRD gave the police officers a dressing down and castigated them for allowing the proliferation of illegal drugs to persist in Bacolod,” Panelo said in a statement.

“The President particularly expressed his frustration as to why they had no knowledge about the presence of certain personalities in Bacolod who are involved in the illegal drug industry,” he added.

Panelo said that the President also reminded the Bacolod cops that they are relieved from their present posts pending their investigation.

He reiterated that the President’s move to fire the Bacolod cops should serve as a warning to other cops that Duterte will not tolerate law enforcement officials involved in the drug trade.

“This swift action of the President is a timely warning to other PNP officers that the President will not tolerate incompetence and inefficiency in the police force, especially with respect to the Administration’s crusade versus illegal drugs,” Panelo said.

In a media interview in Malacañang on Wednesday, Duterte said Ebreo is a protector of illegal drug trade in Bacolod.

“Well, it seems to me that at the very least he’s a protector cop. He might not be into the trafficking business but he was really a protector,” Duterte said.

“I can’t believe that with all the information available to every chief of police or city police director for that matter assigned in the province that they would not review the record of the province in terms of criminality and drug trafficking. Tingin ko pinag-aralan (I think it was well-studied),” he added.

Duterte also mentioned Bacolod City Councilor Ricardo ‘Cano’ Tan who has been tagged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) “almost a decade ago to be engaged in trafficking”.

Meanwhile, Panelo said that while the war on drugs will remain “relentless”, he assured that the President will not only protect cops if they killed in the performance of their duty but will punish those involved in criminal acts like murder.

“We take this occasion to reiterate PRRD’s position that he will support policemen resorting to force only when the same is inevitable as when, in the performance of their duties, a suspect sought to be arrested performs aggressive and violent resistance amounting to an actual or imminent threat to their lives and limbs,” Panelo said.

Earlier, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde, who bared that the five cops were not on the PNP’s drugs watch list and neither that of the President’s, assured that they will be given due process.

Panelo acknowledged that while the PNP has yet to determine drug personalities supposedly being protected by the five cops, the President’s personal evidence was enough basis to fire them.

“Siguro iba ang source of information ni Presidente. Eh Presidente ito, ang dami nitong tentacles of intelligence (Perhaps the President has a different source of information. The President has ‘tentacles of intelligence’),” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

Panelo said that Palace will await the results of the investigation being conducted by the PNP.