Speaker says Dela Rosa should quit as PNP chief
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Friday Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa should resign following his admission that a Korean businessman was abducted by cops who allegedly killed him inside Camp Crame.
“The commission of a heinous crime right under his very nose is not only an insult but a clear indication that he has lost the respect of his people,” said Alvarez in a statement.
“Dela Rosa should immediately resign as chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to save President Rodrigo Duterte from further embarrassment and restore respect to the Office of the PNP Chief,” added Alvarez.
Alvarez said “Dela Rosa should buckle down to work or better yet give the job to someone else who is dead serious in leading the PNP in its multi-pronged war against drugs, criminals and the scalawags within its ranks.”
Senator Panfilo Lacson Jr said apology of Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa over the death of a Korean businessman “is probably the most unwelcome wake-up call.”
“The PNP leadership should lose no time in addressing the issue by henceforth going hammer and tongs against all rogue cops who only care about their personal gains to the detriment of the entire police organization,” said Lacson in statement.
Lacson was director general of the Philippine National Police from 1999 to 2001.
”Priority must be against those who take advantage of the president's all-out, mostly bloody war against illegal drugs,” he said.
Lacson said Dela Rosa knows how to prune the ranks of “inept, corrupt and undisciplined policemen” as the current head of the national police “was one of those at the forefront of our no-nonsense internal cleansing of the police.”
“Seventeen years ago, when I was the Chief PNP, I really hit hard on the inept, corrupt and undisciplined policemen, regardless of rank, or what I referred to at that time as ICUs. My primary concern was to do justice to the sacrifices of the overwhelmingly many honest and hardworking police officers,” said Lacson
Dela Rosa apologized on Thursday over the death of Jee Ick-joo, an executive of a shipping company who abducted in Pampanga last October , at the hands of his captors.
According to the affidavit of one of the policemen who took part in the operation, Jee was strangled to death inside the premises of the national police’s headquarters in Camp Crame.
Dela Rosa said two policemen who thought what they did was sanctioned by higher authorities, confessed. They pointed to Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta. Isabel as the one reportedly behind the abduction.
The justice department Thursday approved the filing of kidnapping for ransom with homicide charges against several persons including two policemen in connection with the abduction of Jee. DMS
