Corrupt to the core kayo!” President Duterte chastised the country’s policemen during a press briefing. “Hindi lahat, almost about 40 percent of you are really sanay sa corruption,” the President added.
Duterte called for a total overhaul of the Philippine National Police in the wake of the alleged brutal killing last week of a South Korean businessman by corrupt police officials, as he apologized to South Korean investors and South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Kim Jae-Shin, for the murder of Jee Ick-joo, and promised swift retribution.
As reported, one of the suspects had issued a fake arrest warrant to the victim, and that Jee was arrested in the guise of a drug bust.
“Clean your ranks. Review their cases. Give me a list of who the scalawags are,” Duterte ordered the PNP.
“I am very sorry for that sordid incident. But I can assure you, policemen, I will not let you get away [with it],” CNN Philippines quoted him as saying.
On Sunday last week, Du30 ordered the dissolution of all anti-illegal drug units within the Philippine National Police, although he said he remains committed to the controversial war on drugs campaign, adding, ”I will establish a new command. It could be a narcotics command or whatever,” he said.”
As the daily body count rose, death squads started to proliferate, creating a culture of impunity and invincibility because Du30 declared he was giving the policemen his full support, promising them pardon even when convicted, while performing their anti-drug duties.
Fears had been expressed regarding the possible negative effects it would have on the country’s economic growth and equity market.
As published by Transparency International, the Philippines is the 101 least corrupt nation out of 175 countries, according to the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index.
“Duterte’s dramatic rise to power in the Philippines made extensive use of anti-corruption rhetoric,” stated Transparency International. “Yet, the impact of death squads, attacks on media, and violent intimidation of civil society forces led to the detriment of democracy.”
Fighting corruption is a big bet for the Philippines and for foreign investors buying Philippine stocks. Why? Because winning it would mean the Philippines has won the war against corruption, and has pushed forward and become a developed country.
On the other hand, losing the bet would mean the Philippines has lost the corruption war, and has slid back to frontier status; and that seems to be the case with the Philippines, if the country’s corruption ranking will slide down.
God works in mysterious ways. Who would have thought that Du30 would run after the PNP scalawags, dismantle the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group. Now believe what Duterte says. In his own words, Du30 does what he says!
It is important to remember that while a majority of PNP officers are regularly doing their jobs, it only takes one rotten egg to sully the image of any government agency.
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Author’s email: whelmayap@yahoo.com
