Choi Kyung-jin (left), widow of Jee Ick-joo, the South Korean businessman kidnapped and killed by rogue Filipino policemen, at the start of a Senate probe into the killing on Thursday.

MANILA: Three Philippine police charged with robbery and extortion have been transferred instead of suspended or sacked, authorities said Thursday, fuelling concerns about immunity for rogue officers prosecuting President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war.

The announcement of the punishments for the trio came as a Senate inquiry began into the murder of a South Korean businessman allegedly by anti-drug police officers who extorted money from his wife.

Critics of Duterte’s drug war, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives, say he has emboldened corrupt officers with his repeated pledges that he will shield police if they are charged for killing drug suspects.

Duterte personally ordered the three officers, accused of extorting a mother and son of 120,000 pesos (Dh8,815; $2,400) last week in Manila, to the violence-plagued south of the country, a police statement said on Thursday.

“This is part of the continuous internal cleansing of (the city police),” Guillermo Eleazar, their police chief in Quezon City, a district of the capital, said in the statement.

“(It) should serve as a lesson for those involved in illegal activities and also a stern warning for others not to do the same.”

Duterte had previously vowed to transfer corrupt policemen to an autonomous region in the strife-torn southern Philippines, where security forces are battling several militant groups, leading to protests from the local authorities.

“We need the best of our country’s police on our side — not the worst,” Mujiv Hataman, the regional governor, said this month.

“Erring law enforcers must be held accountable. Sending them to the (region) is not a disciplinary action, rather it is a move that portrays our region as undeserving of dignified and dedicated public service.”

Duterte, 71, has said he must take extraordinary measures to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state and Filipinos from becoming slaves to drugs.

But critics fear the police force, regarded as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, is spearheading a campaign of extrajudicial killings while corrupt officers are using the campaign as cover for their own rackets.

Duterte said this week he would tolerate them earning “sideline” money, a euphemism for various corrupt activities, as long as that did not involve drugs.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa told the Senate inquiry on Thursday that the anti-drugs officer accused of murdering the Korean businessman had been suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of a woman in 2007.

“How can a police officer with allegations of that sort be assigned to speciality units like the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group,” said Senator Vicente Sotto. </s> Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the country's police to dissolve its anti-drug units following the killing of a South Korean businessman by rogue officers.

Duterte said Sunday that he was "embarrassed" that anti-drug officers abused their powers, and will change the way the police operates. "Cleanse your ranks. Review their cases. Give me a list of who the scalawags are" he said, in remarks reported by CNN . Duterte has, however, vowed to go ahead with his anti-drug campaign until the last day of six-year term.

Government prosecutors say officers abducted Jee Ick-joo on Oct. 18, strangled him to death at Manila's Philippine National Police headquarters, and asked for a ransom from the slain businessman's wife, Choi Kyung-jin. Duterte has since apologized to South Korea and promised swift retribution.

The killing has added to criticism of Duterte's anti-drug campaign, which unleashed a bloody crackdown that saw about 2,000 killed by the police and another 5,000 killed by suspected vigilantes. </s> A Foreign Businessman's Murder Pauses Philippine Drug War, But For How Long?

A month ago, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte hit the pause button on his controversial war on drugs. That war has left more than 7,500 people dead since Duterte took office last June, promising a "dirty" and "bloody" fight against drugs.

"Do your duty, and if in the process, you kill 1,000 persons, I will protect you," Duterte, nicknamed "The Punisher," told police days after his election.

And he did — standing by them fiercely in the months that followed, despite allegations of of extrajudicial killings that prompted international outrage.

But then came the case of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, kidnapped and murdered in October by members of a police anti-drug unit. They'd seized him at his home outside Manila in an alleged anti-drug operation. He was strangled to death at police headquarters in Manila.

Some reports say Jee's wife paid a ransom to win his release, not knowing he was already dead.

When Duterte learned of Jee's murder in January, he wasn't pleased. He immediately ordered the Philippine National Police to stand down from its leading role in his anti-drug campaign. The force, he said, was filled with "scallywags" and was "rotten to the core."

Edcel Lagman, a Philippine congressman and one of the few Duterte critics in the House of Representatives, says he doesn't think the police "is entirely corrupt to the core. But the corruption in the police agency is substantial."

He wonders why it took a foreigner's death to make Duterte act.

"More than a single foreigner, 7,000 Filipinos had already been sacrificed in extrajudicial killings in this deadly campaign against the drug menace," he says.

Last month, Duterte vowed to "cleanse" the national police for before allowing it to return to the war on drugs, and tasked the much smaller Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to take the lead in his anti-drug campaign.

The mercurial, short-fused president also made his anger known in a live television address on Feb. 7 at Malacanang Palace, where he unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade at several hundred cops standing sheepishly before him. He ordered them transferred to the island of Basilan in the violence-plagued south of the country, the home turf of the al-Qaida linked terrorist group Abu Sayyaf — the same group that beheaded a German hostage earlier this week.

"I will send you to Basilan, live there for two years. If you get out alive, you can return here," Duterte fumed. "If you die there, I will tell the police not to spend anything to bring you back here but to bury you there." Those who did not wish to go, he said, could quit.

Several dozen cops failed to show up for their trip south. Others, local reports say, had their deployment delayed to appear in court to answer charges against them. Duterte has indirectly threatened those who failed to show.

But on Monday, a month after pulling the plug on the national police, the Philippine online news site Rappler reported that Duterte would soon allow limited participation of the police in his controversial anti-drug campaign — under the supervision of the PDEA.

"I lack personnel," he said. "I have ordered [national police chief Ronald dela Rosa] to recruit young men in the [national police] imbued with the fervor of patriotism to be the members only of the task forces, but only a select few, those without cases and without a history of corruption."

When this will happen — and how many will be involved — is unclear.

"We hope and pray that the authorities will clean up their act," says Chito Gascon, who heads the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines. "But I won't hold my breath after what I've seen the last seven months."

Of the 7,500 alleged drug related killings in the last seven months, Gascon says, more than 2,000 suspects have been killed in encounters with police. Police claim the suspects fired first. But there's a problem with that argument, Gascon says.

"The self-defense argument must be brought to the court," he says. "And of the 2,000 cases, not one single police officer has been brought to court. That's the problem. So it's not enough they do something about the case of the Korean national. It's just as important we begin the process of holding police officers to account."

Gascon says he hopes Duterte was sincere when he said that's what he wanted to do with the police after the murder of the South Korean businessman. But he has his doubts.

"Perhaps the pace will be slowed down, put the brakes on a little bit because people have crossed lines or violated rules or been found out," he says. "But in due course, I think eventually the killings will continue."

In the Arellano slum in Manila, a place where NPR has returned frequently since the war on drugs began, residents think so, too.

Cindy Medrano, who helps run her family's food stall in the neighborhood, says she supports the war on drugs and there's been far less crime in the neighborhood since it began. But she's not a fan of the extrajudicial killings and complains it's the poor who bear the brunt of the war on drugs — not the drug kingpins or corrupt cops deeply involved in the drug trade. She's confident the killings will resume again soon.

"I think this is just temporary," she says. Because President Duterte, she says, is the kind of person who finishes what he starts, even if due process is ignored.

Lilibeth Diego, a former methamphetamine addict who surrendered to police back in September out of fear that she'd be killed if she didn't, agrees. Since the war on drugs was suspended, some say dealers have moved back to their corners to do business. But not in Arellano, she says.

"Even if I want to use again here, you can't buy anymore, nobody's selling," Diego says.

And the cops are still around, she says, in plainclothes, wearing black shirts and shorts. Just watching, she says. And waiting. </s> President Duterte on Tuesday said he would have to call the police back to his war on drugs, as the narcotics menace became resurgent during the campaign’s suspension.

Mr. Duterte said the recall would mean all police would return, but only some. He did not elaborate.

ADVERTISEMENT

But the chief of the Philippine National Police, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, told reporters that only select police would be deployed to press the war on drugs.

“We have to make sure all drug enforcement units are already clean. The vetting process will be stricter so that [undesirables] will not be able to get in,” Dela Rosa told reporters.

“All of those involved will have to be selected very carefully. There are many who are capable and are just waiting to be tapped. They should just wait,” he added.

Dela Rosa earlier said many local government officials had complained to him that drug pushers and users had become bolder after the PNP suspended its campaign against drugs.

“The longer we are not in the war on drugs, the more the problem is coming back. The situation is getting worse,” he said.

“It’s like the gains of the last seven months in our war on drugs are going to waste. So, the sooner [the PNP gets back], the better,” he added.

The PNP chief made the comment after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano urged President Duterte over the weekend to relaunch the drug war.

More than 7,700 people have been killed by police and unknown assailants since Mr. Duterte launched the crackdown after taking office at end-June last year.

Mr. Duterte suspended the war on drugs in January after a series of scandals involving narcotics officers, including the kidnapping for ransom and murder of a Korean businessman.

ADVERTISEMENT

The President dismantled the police narcotics force and ordered the filing of charges against the officers involved in the murder of Jee Ick-joo, whose wife the narcs tricked into paying P5 million in ransom after killing him.

With the PNP sidelined, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) took the lead in the fight against drugs.

Mr. Duterte also ordered the military to help the government fight drugs.

On Tuesday, the PDEA and the Armed Forces of the Philippines signed an agreement for cooperation in the crackdown.

Under the agreement, the PDEA will be the lead agency in fighting drugs, with the military providing force in “high-impact operations” that involve the arrest of “high-value targets,” according to Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the military’s public affairs office.

The military will also expand its counterintelligence task force to help the PDEA identify, investigate and dismantle drug gangs, including people in the government and influential groups with links to drugs. —WITH REPORTS FROM CYNTHIA D. BALANA AND THE WIRES

Read Next

LATEST STORIES

MOST READ </s> The Philippine police yesterday suspended President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs, as it refocuses its efforts on purging its ranks of rogue officers.

The move comes as the 160,000-strong Philippine National Police (PNP) is shaken by a scandal over the kidnapping and slaying last year of a South Korean man, allegedly by anti-narcotics officers.

"There is no war on drugs for the meantime. We're shifting to a war on scalawags. We will clean our own ranks first. Then after that, maybe, we can resume the war on drugs," director-general Ronald de la Rosa, the PNP chief, told reporters.

Hours earlier, at a late evening news conference on Sunday, Mr Duterte ordered the PNP to disband its anti-illegal drugs group, and all precinct-level anti-narcotics units.

"Something has to be corrected severely… Let me reorganise the system," he said, describing the police force as "the most corrupt".
• President Rodrigo Duterte takes office and immediately sets in motion a crackdown on crime. During his campaign, he promised to end the drug menace in three to six months.
• At his State of the Nation Address, Mr Duterte says there are nearly four million drug addicts in the Philippines. Official figures, though, place it closer to 1.8 million.
• Mr Duterte hits out at then US President Barack Obama for criticising his anti-crime drive. By then, more than 2,400 have been killed by either police or vigilantes.
• Mr Duterte asks for a six-month extension of his self-imposed deadline.
• Mr Duterte marks his first 100 days in office. The death toll has risen to 3,500. The number would later be revised down to 2,300. Police explain that a number of deaths are not drug-related.
• Anti-narcotics officers seize South Korean Jee Ick Joo, under the pretence of a drug raid.
• The number of drug suspects killed breaches 6,000. Of the total, 2,102 are killed in police operations and the rest by unknown suspects.
• The Philippine Daily Inquirer publishes a report on Mr Jee's kidnapping and possible murder.
• South Korea's foreign ministry confirms receiving a report that Mr Jee has been killed, purportedly by rogue cops. Six suspects are named.
• Police Director-General Ronald de la Rosa confirms that Mr Jee was killed inside the headquarters of the police's top brass.
• Police suspend the anti-crime drive to focus on "cleansing" their ranks.

"You are corrupt to the core. It's in your system," the President said, suggesting that two in five policemen are probably tainted.

Mr de la Rosa had offered to resign, but Mr Duterte said: "What good will come of it? You can't be blamed for this." Mr de la Rosa was police chief when Mr Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao.

The "internal cleansing" of the police force arose from a discovery that errant cops were behind the abduction and murder of Mr Jee Ick Joo, a South Korean businessman.

Mr Jee was seized in October by an anti-narcotics team, under the pretence of a drug raid. He was taken to a compound inside the camp housing the headquarters of the PNP's top brass in Manila. While there, and just steps away from Mr de la Rosa's office, police officer Ricky Santa Isabel strangled Mr Jee.

Santa Isabel then demanded a ransom of five million pesos (S$143,300) from Mr Jee's wife. Not knowing Mr Jee was already dead, she paid on Oct 31. But Santa Isabel then asked for another four million pesos.

During a Senate hearing last week, Santa Isabel tagged his supervisor Rafael Dumlao as the "brains" behind the kidnapping and slaying.

On Sunday, Mr Duterte offered a five million peso reward for Dumlao's arrest, "dead or alive".

"You deliver him to me dead, I'm okay with that… (Dumlao) put the reputation of the police in shambles," he said.

Mr de la Rosa afterwards informed Mr Duterte that Dumlao was already in police custody, and that Dumlao had confessed to the crime.

Mr de la Rosa said he does not know how long the police purge will last. He said he will form a "counter-intelligence task force" to go after errant cops, and a new "narcotics command" may be set up later.

Mr Duterte, meanwhile, said his crackdown on illegal drugs will continue until the end of his term in 2022.

"I will extend it to the last day of my term. March no longer applies," he said.

He had promised during his campaign to rid the Philippines of the "drug menace" in six months. He later asked for three more months, saying he was unaware, until he assumed office, how widespread the problem had become.

Critics questioned the sincerity of the police "cleansing".

Mr Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said "it is nothing less than an empty public relations gesture".

Mr Renato Reyes, secretary-general of Bayan (Nation), a coalition of leftist activist groups, said: "How can a corrupt and fascist police force, where impunity is the norm, successfully stamp out criminal activities such as the illegal drug trade? The body count will continue to rise and more criminals in uniform will wreak havoc on the people."

SEE WORLD: Duterte accuses US of building arms depots </s> 'Because of the gravity of the charges... if I were Dumlao I'd stay inside [Camp Crame],' says the President, ordering the cop to stay under PNP custody and face the charges against him

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte named Superintendent Rafael Dumlao the mastermind in the abduction and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.

"If you do not come out, I will offer P5 million [for you], dead or alive," said the President in a press conference at around 11:30 pm. "You put the reputation of the police in shambles."

As the press conference was ongoing, however, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa told Duterte that Dumlao was already back in PNP custody.

Dumlao had been under restrictive custody at Camp Crame, the PNP headquarters, but slipped out on Saturday, January 28, supposedly after police failed to serve an arrest warrant against him. But Dela Rosa said Dumlao was back in Camp Crame on Sunday, and had supposedly promised to "tell all."

"He has to be investigated," Duterte later said during the press conference. "Because of the gravity of the charges... if I were Dumlao I'd stay inside [Camp Crame]... Galit ako, kasi pati ako napahiya (I'm angry, because I was also humiliated)."

Jee was killed right inside Camp Crame in October 2016. He was abducted from his home in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta Isabel, considered a principal suspect in the case, claimed he is a mere fall guy and that he got orders from Dumlao, his former chief in the PNP's Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG). (READ: Jee Ick Joo case: Tangled webs, inconsistent stories)

Last Thursday, January 26, Duterte had vowed that Jee's killers would go to prison.

"Tang ina kayong pulis, bantay kayo, hindi ko kayo papalusutin (Police, you sons of bitches, I won't let you get away with it). You will suffer. Maybe I can send your heads to South Korea," said the President.

He also apologized to South Koreans on behalf of the Philippine government. "I apologize for the death of your compatriot. We are very sorry that it had to happen." – Rappler </s> MANILA: Philippine police are suspending their anti-narcotics operation until they have cleansed their ranks of "scalawags", the chief of the force said on Monday, following the killing of a South Korean businessmen by rogue officers.

The police campaign, dubbed "Oplan Double Barrel", which also includes "Tokhang", in which police go house to house knocking on doors in search of drug suspects, has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 suspected drug users and pushers.

"To all the rogue cops, beware! We no longer have a war on drugs. We now have a war on scalawags," Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Ronald dela Rosa told a news conference.

Dela Rosa's pronouncement came a few hours after he said he would disband anti-drugs units following the kidnapping and killing of businessman Jee Ick-joo in the national police headquarters in October.

The president and his police chief "should categorically give the order to end the killings," said Senator Leila De Lima, President Rodrigo Duterte's most outspoken critic.

The dismantling of the anti-drug units meant "they are aware that the very men involved in anti-drug operations...are involved in illegal activities under the guise of the so-called war on drugs," she told ANC television.

But Duterte vowed on Sunday to forge ahead with his war on drugs until the last day of his term.

"We will cleanse our ranks...then maybe after that, we can resume our war on drugs. The president told us to clean the organisation first," Dela Rosa said.

"I don't know how long it will take to cleanse the PNP. But with each and every one of us cooperating, helping each other, maybe in a month, we can do it."

The anti-drug campaign has caused alarm in the West and rights groups accuse Duterte of turning a blind eye to a wave of alleged extrajudicial killings by police, mostly of low-level peddlers. Police deny this, claiming self-defence.

Duterte said police officials who had been the subject of internal investigations should be reassigned to work in conflict zones.

Fighting drugs and crime was the key platform of Duterte's election campaign, during which he promised to eradicate illicit drugs within six months. His term ends in 2022.

He said he underestimated the depth of problem, and on Sunday promised the crackdown would continue until the end of his six-year presidency, and criticism would not stop him. </s> If the Philippines’ war on drugs isn’t working, it’s because of the corrupt “scalawags” on the police force. Or at least that’s what President Rodrigo Duterte says.

Over 7,000 people have been killed by police and vigilante groups since Duterte started his country-wide anti-narcotics offensive in June, 2016. For months, he rebuffed harsh criticism from human rights groups and international leaders, who accused him of promoting vigilantism and giving cops authority to kill and arrest at whim.

Now, he appears to be backtracking. The murder of a South Korean businessman by rogue Filipino police officers in October, 2016 has given ammunition to Duterte’s critics and pushed him into an embarrassing diplomatic rift with the South Korean government. His response? Start a war on crooked cops.

“You policemen are the most corrupt. You are corrupt to the core. It’s in your system,” Duterte said Sunday in a press conference, a seeming retreat from his steadfast support for Filipino police. “Cleanse your ranks. Review their cases. Give me a list of who the scalawags are,” Duterte said Sunday evening.

Duterte is no stranger to incendiary speech. He once called former President Barack Obama and Pope Francis “sons of whores.” He also boasted about killing people by throwing them out of helicopters — two weeks after political opponents tried to get him impeached for, well, boasting about killing people.

Some human rights experts dismissed Duterte and dela Rosa’s pledge as a stunt. Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, called it a “cynical PR gesture.”

But stunt or not, Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa announced Monday he was dissolving anti-drug units to instead tackle corruption. “We will cleanse our ranks…then maybe after that, we can resume our war on drugs,” he told press. “Rogue cops, beware! We no longer have a war on drugs; we now have a war on scalawags.”

Though Duterte previously pledged to eradicate the country’s drug problem by March, on Monday he said he would continue his anti-narcotics offensive to the end of his term in 2022. After he eradicated police corruption, of course.

Also on Monday, the Philippine senate also (conveniently) suspended the legislative inquiry into the South Korean businessman’s murder, saying it needed to refocus its efforts on observing the new war on corruption. Scalawags, beware. </s> The Philippine police yesterday suspended a controversial war on drugs, as they move to try and purge their ranks of rogue officers.

The 160,000-strong Philippine National Police has been shaken by a scandal over the kidnapping and slaying last year of a South Korean man, allegedly by anti-narcotics officers.

President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday acknowledged widespread corruption in the police force and vowed to "cleanse" it.

The President, however, said his crackdown on illegal drugs would continue until the end of his term in 2022.

SEE TOP OF THE NEWS: Manila suspends war on drugs to purge rogue cops
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suspends the war on drugs so resources can focus on ridding “corrupt” officers from the Philippine National Police. The cause célèbre is the kidnapping and strangulation of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo last October.