A member of the opposition within the House of Representatives on Thursday criticized the decision for high police officers to resign, saying it was supposed to divert public consideration away from “raging” points.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos earlier requested generals and full colonels of the Philippine National Police to submit their courtesy resignations as a part of the federal government’s efforts to rid the police power of officers concerned within the unlawful drug commerce.
“This [call] is a distraction. Curiously, the announcement was made amid raging public interest issues such as the Philippine airspace outage, mass transport woes in the metro, and New Year spike in prices of goods and services, including the water rate hike implemented by Maynilad and Manila Water,” House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of the ACT Teachers party-list stated in a press release.
“If the Marcos Jr. administration really wants to cleanse the PNP of the drug problem, then it must pursue the filing of charges against erring cops instead of pushing for the approval of the free legal assistance bill for uniformed personnel,” she added.
Castro stated the federal government ought to enable the International Criminal Court to probe the abuses within the police’s anti-drug operations.
“Otherwise, such a move would just be lame media theatric,” she added.
For House harmful medication panel chairperson Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte and House public and order panel head Dan Fernandez of Laguna, Abalos made the fitting name.
“In my view, we should support this call, and the PNP should heed this call. We need such a strategy if we are to win the fight against illegal drugs,” Barbers stated in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.
“The policy to tender a courtesy resignation will not only keep their ranks clean but will also enable them to gain the full trust and confidence of the public,” he added.
Fernandez stated Abalos’ transfer was laudable and must be complemented with applicable laws.
“I’m fully supportive of Secretary Abalos and in addition, we need to strengthen our existing laws penalizing men in uniform who are in cahoots with criminal elements,” Fernandez stated.
“As it is, there are those who have no regard for laws because they can easily get away with it,” he added. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
