Central Luzon police director Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino said here that earlier, 83 of 100 such cops have already been plucked out from their assignments in the region and transferred mostly to various provinces in Mindanao.
“There were initially 100 policemen in the list, but only 83 were reassigned because the others went on absence without leave or left the police force,” Aquino said in an interview.
Aquino said he is finalizing the list of the second wave of cops also to be transferred to distant areas as a measure to uproot them from any linkage to illegal drugs in the current areas of assignment.
He said he is looking into intelligence reports on more Central Luzon policemen involved in illegal drugs, either as users, dealers or protectors of dealers. His list included a notorious cop who had been tagged as a “ninja” or those con- fi scating illegal drugs in buy-bust and other police operations and reselling the drugs for personal gain.
A report received by Aquino also said the same cop had been engaged in blackmail and extortion by asking for signifi cant sums of money from relatives of arrested drug users in exchange for not fi ling a case against the suspect. Two others reportedly in cahoots with the cop are also being considered for transfer.
Aquino has noted strong correlation between illegal drugs and criminality, as he reported a 50 percent decrease in various forms of crimes in his region in contrast to 60 percent rise in murder cases, often involving anti-drug vigilantes, since Pres. Duterte assumed post last July 1.
“This statistics so far this July alone is unprecedented. It seems to indicate that most crimes being committed in the region have drug users or pushers as culprits,” Aquino said.
The July statistics on crimes in Central Luzon also showed that cases of rapes went down by as much as 40 percent this month. “This seems to indicate that most of the rapists were drug crazed,” he said.
He noted, however, that murder cases shot up by 60 percent, involving mostly vigilante killings of purported dealers of illegal drugs. The cases do not involve those killed in legitimate anti-illegal drugs operations of the police, he added.
Aquino also noted that regional police used to have at least 800 people in their watchlist of illegal drug peddlers and users in Central Luzon. “That is why it came as a surprise that so far, about 35,000 self-confessed drug pushers and users have already surrendered to the police in the region,” he noted.
“We expect more drug pushers to surrender,” he added.
