Nartatez set sights against ‘kotong’ cops
‘We are here to protect and not to exploit our vulnerable countrymen.’
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. reiterated his commitment Thursday to purge corrupt personnel from police ranks, ordering intensified operations against officers involved in extortion and criminal misconduct.
“We are here to protect and not to exploit our vulnerable countrymen,” Nartatez said. “There is no place in the PNP for police scalawags, particularly those police officers who extort money from the public for their own gains.”
The warning follows the arrest of a police staff sergeant implicated in an extortion scheme involving the collection of “butaw,” or protection fees, from jeepney drivers per trip.
Investigators also identified the arrested officer as a key suspect in the June killing of a jeepney driver at the Katihan Bridge in Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City.
Nartatez condemned the suspect’s alleged actions as a direct violation of police standards that undermines the work of honest officers.
“These police officers are nothing but a disgrace to the organization as they tarnish the image of the entire force, damaging the reputation of the good men and women of the PNP,” Nartatez said.
The PNP chief pledged that internal anti-corruption operations will continue through targeted entrapment missions alongside administrative and criminal prosecutions. He added that the agency is reviewing existing reporting channels to make it easier for citizens to report police abuses safely.
“The Philippine National Police continues to intensify its entrapment operations against extortionist cops, and we are determined to file criminal and administrative charges against them, aside from weeding them out of our ranks,” Nartatez said.