Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jul 2016
Source: Manila Times (Philippines)
Copyright: 2016, The Manila Times
Contact:  http://www.manilatimes.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/921

PNP NOW PROPERLY AT WAR AGAINST ENEMY DRUG LORDS

EVERYONE watching the TV coverage of his first hours as our President 
saw him give an example of how a government executive should work. 
Immediately after being sworn in, giving the inaugural address, 
swearing in his Cabinet members en masse, and meeting with each of 
the foreign ambassadors-shaking hands and chatting a bit with each of 
the almost 140 of them, he convened the first Cabinet meeting. There 
he confirmed the marching orders he had given them earlier, before he 
took office, when he had a one-on-one with each of them and offered 
them their positions.

After the Cabinet meeting, he then continued to do his work.

We hope all government officials and employees follow his example. 
They should not, however, be like him in, according to some gossip, 
starting his working day at 1 p.m. We don't believe this, even if he 
might have said this himself. A lot of the work in government offices 
must be done from 7 a.m.

New PNP brass

The way things have begun to change at the PNP is commendable. We 
don't mean the vigilante killing of hoodlums and drug dealers. We 
mean the killing of hoodlums and drug dealers who draw guns on 
policemen doing their jobs and arresting them. We mean the 
pinpointing of rogue police officers who coddle drug lords-or are, in 
fact, partners of drug lords or are drug lords themselves (the good 
cops have dossiers on them)-and the new Director-General of the PNP, 
Chief Supt. Ronaldo "Bato" de la Rosa, calling on them to come 
forward and surrender-or be hunted down and killed by arresting officers!

And we like the way just-installed Acting District Director of the 
Eastern Police District (EPD), Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, 
is doing the war on drugs. Yesterday (Saturday) he reiterated the 
ages-old, longstanding order for the Area Chiefs of Police to do 
their job and terminate the illegal drug trafficking in their areas.

In past regimes, these orders to terminate illegal drug trafficking 
were also given.

But-probably because the PNP brass in the past knew all along that 
the order they were giving was being correctly understood by the 
policemen as pretend lines from a play-they did not bark or give 
orders with the sense of urgency necessary in a war effort. While 
they sometimes called it a "war," the police brass and the rank and 
file of the PNP generally felt that no war was really being 
fought-because the "enemy" drug lords were friends or were fronts for 
some of the high-ranking PNP officers themselves.

This time, however, it the PNP brass under President Duterte are 
giving orders to the rank and file to bring the war to the drug lords 
with urgency and resolve. While before, the mission to demolish the 
drug lords were given as if it were a leisurely exercise to 
accomplish when and if you can, this time the mission order includes 
a deadline.

Sapitula has given the police chiefs of the areas under his command 
ONE MONTH to wipe out the drug lords and eliminate the problem of 
illegal drugs in their jurisdictions. Any one of these police chiefs 
who has not accomplished his mission in one month will be relieved of his post.

That's the way wars are fought. And we are optimistic that the four 
EPD area chiefs of police will win the war. They know who the drug 
lords are and where their bases are. They do not have the men and 
firepower that the PNP has. The PNP will defeat them! And the people 
of Metro Manila are behind them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom