The Philippine National Police (PNP) should consider President Rody Duterte’s bounty offer for its members who recycle shabu or who are called ninja cops as a rebuke and not as something to feel good about.

It was very awkward for PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde to welcome Rody’s statement, made during the Hugpong ng Pagbabago convention, putting a P5-million prize for each dead ninja cop as it had the effect of telling the police force it is ineffective in expunging misfits.

Albayalde said he considers the P5-million reward as a “very strong deterrence against these few bad cops” and a very huge incentive “for the majority of our good cops to aggressively root out these ninja cops from our ranks.”

In his cryptic rant, what Rody apparently meant in raising the ante on ninja cops was that more than two years of PNP cleansing has not produced the results that he desired.

Since the PNP can’t purge the scalawags in uniform, he asked them to surrender in 48 hours.

For sure measure, Rody said he will add P1 million more per month as reward “for the head of ninja cops until their wives would find a boyfriend to kill you.”

He added that a ninja cop brought alive to him will only be worth P10,000 in reward, showing his desperation to remove a major hurdle to the success of his war on drugs.

In response, Albayalde can only mutter that the hunt for ninja cops “should be patently smart and legal. Simply put, all operations against erring cops must be in accordance with the law.”

The PNP chief should have interpreted the statement of Rody in his thinking out loud manner of talking in which he vents his frustration and impatience.

Lately, the level of Rody’s exasperation has been elevated due to his many appointees being suspected of irregularities.

Lately, he booted out a Philippine Military Academy comptroller for malversation of public funds.

He recently fired en masse the entire board and management of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation Inc. for a questionable casino deal. He later terminated AFP Medical Center (also known as the V. Luna Hospital) commander Col. Antonio Punzalan, AFP Health Service Center head Brig. Gen. Edwin Leo Torrelavega and 20 others for alleged procurement anomalies and ghost deliveries.

Rody’s impatience was evident from the start even before he assumed the presidency as he said during his election campaigns that he will give himself six months to end the drugs problem and corruption in government.

He then later admitted that it can’t be done and extended it to a year before saying that it may take more time and completing his work may extend to the end of his term after discovering the extent of the problem when he took over the reins of government.

Lately, Rody said he is growing tired and frustrated and that he is willing to hand over the presidency except to Vice President Leni Robredo who is his constitutional successor. He assessed that Leni does not have the quality to pursue his unfinished business.

Rody is a master of the feel of the public pulse. He knows what little time he has to fulfil all his promises and that he is not even done with the first item in his checklist halfway through his term.

He told the PNP, “You (had) better shape up because I will rise and fall on the issue of corruption. The police has a lot of shortcomings. I say, stop.”

Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go, who walks and talks with the President daily, said what Rody asks is that officials cooperate and help in the daunting tasks facing him.

“The President needs everyone’s cooperation. I am making an appeal, our President is serious in his campaign to end corruption. He doesn’t care who gets hit along the way,” Go said.

“I can sense the President’s difficulties. He is getting old and he’s doing all he can. He wants to instil discipline in everyone but it is really becoming very difficult,” he added.

The usual critics and his officials usually tangle with Rody for failing to accurately read what is in his mind through his unorthodox style.

Ordinary Filipinos, not clouded by political or vested interests, in contrast, easily relate to the President.