Ninja cops

Seems to me Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde has too much gumption to call this early we all “move on” with the “ninja cops” issue.

With criminal “ninja cops,” just “moving on” isn’t the way out. If this government is really serious about eradicating the menace of scalawags in uniform the only plausible way is to wrestle these rotten and criminal species to the ground and pack them off to jail.

To be fair, Albayalde’s presumptuous call for “moving on” has more to do with his supposed involvement with “ninja cops” way back in 2013 rather than about “ninja cops” in general.

We can allow him this leeway since it is understandable — he needs to save his ass and whatever remains of his tainted reputation and integrity before he retires next month.

But our charity can only go so far. In no way does Albayalde’s sad plea detract us from the main larger issue of “ninja cops.”

The main issue here has less to do with whatever fate awaits Albayalde but more about why for so long top police officials have been tip-toeing around the existence of these scalawag cops, hardly doing anything. And if there had been anything done, muck it up big time.

Not losing sight of this larger issue is essential in face of alarming side issues sprouting around it, causing further distress and confusion.

We also cannot conveniently ignore these side issues since it involves thorny thickets of issues like who is telling the truth or who is lying, death threats and questionable double standards in the application of due process and human rights.

Alarming though these side issues are we still need to momentarily set these aside as these threaten to completely devour the main issue stated above on the “ninja cops” controversy.

Right off, we need to dispel with the illusion we have a firm grip on “ninja cops.” Notwithstanding the popular notoriety of “ninja cops,” with the public understanding the phrase as a rogue cop stealthily reselling seized illegal drugs, it is only now when we are getting factual confirmation and conclusive proof that “ninja cops” are real.

Much less, too, are there any conclusive proofs that those in the top echelons in the police organization are involved in the nefarious practice.

Thus, the Albayalde controversy, which came from a series of unintended events, not only gives us the needed clarity on the “ninja cops” issue but these same events also put the question of police leadership squarely before the public forum, for scrutiny and judgment, including the scrutiny of suspicions the police brass may have even actively backed “ninja cops.”

Anyway, on 16 September during a Senate hearing for the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) 2020 budget, PDEA boss Aaron Aquino tells senators that drug recycling is still “rampant” in the police organization.

Aquino claims that “when they (police) seize drugs, maybe half of that will be surrendered. Or they will make it appear that the amount of seized drugs is less. While all the other ones are being kept for other future operations, or worse, [are sold].”

Aquino’s revelations created shockwaves in the Philippine National Police (PNP). While the revelations were riveting enough, these were in danger of being sidelined. If not for the Senate.

In the past several weeks senators have been probing the controversial Good Conduct Time Allowance Law involving prison officials.

But the Senate’s probe segued to the existence of “ninja cops” in the PNP when witnesses at the Bureau of Corrections mess bared the continuous illegal drug operations inside and outside the New Bilibid prison.

Senators called in Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, a former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDC) chief, to shed light on the illegal practice.

During an executive session on 19 September of two Senate committees, Magalong presented a 2013 Pampanga police operation as the chief example of a sting executed by “ninja cops.”

In the Pampanga case, a buy-bust operation by 13 cops in November of 2013 turned out scandalously ugly — the officers stood accused of pilfering more than 160 kilograms of “shabu,” for setting free the suspected drug trafficker in exchange for P50 million and for helping themselves to new sport utility vehicles with the bribe money.

All these happened under the nose of Albayalde, who was then the acting provincial police chief of Pampanga.

Both Aquino and Magalong publicly accused Albayalde of intervening in the dismissal of the accused 13 Pampanga “ninja cops” when he was Metro Manila police chief in late 2016. The 13 embattled cops weren’t dismissed and suffered only demotions.

Albayalde admitted to calling Aquino about the administrative case of the 13, but denied telling him not to implement the dismissal order. He also denied any wrongdoing during the anomalous buy-bust.

The dramatic accusations and denials of an anomalous seven-year old drug bust that had left the 13 accused with relatively safe positions in the police organization incensed senators, enough for them to proclaim there was a “grand cover up.”

One senator even had to declare openly, “Why are you trying to get the people off the hook? Are you the mafia or the PNP?”

Suspicions of a cover-up opened up a host of scandalous questions. Some of the pricklier questions were: How long have this been going on, this coverup of “ninja cops”? If there was a cover-up then, can we assume the PNP leadership is still actively covering up the activities of “ninja cops”? To what extent will senior police officials go to protect their own “bata” network in the police organization, even if that network is clearly in the wrong?

Senators have yet to get answers to these questions. We too are hoping we also get answers soon.