Alleged police complicity in focus

We must support authorities on the right track

Included beneath the magnifying glass is the theft of seized shabu supplies sold for cash and recycled back into the market.

Which prompted Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, vice chairperson of the House good government and public accountability committee, to blurt out the Philippines needs a new “hard-hitting independent watchdog” against rampant police corruption and misconduct.

“The illegal drug trade in particular is clearly having a monstrous corruptive influence on police officers, and we must counteract this,” Pimentel said on Sunday.

He added: “Our sense is, we need a tougher watchdog that can swiftly carry out administrative and criminal investigations of police wrongdoing without fear or favor.”

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers has also expressed full support and agreement with National Police Commission Vice-Chair lawyer Alberto Bernardo on the latter’s findings the PNP system of promotion and performance rating of antidrug police operatives is seriously flawed.

Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said the performance rating is geared towards the number of arrests and seizures, leading to staged, fake and fabricated “accomplishments,” to the detriment of innocent people who languish in jail with trumped up charges.

Barbers fumed: “Imagine, based on these fake accomplishments, the officers kept on being promoted until they are high up in the ladder and can control and influence the organization.

“They have become so accustomed with their illegal activities that they have become a big part of the whole drug syndicate.

“The promotion is just one part, the worst