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President Rodrigo Duterte backed National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Guillermo Eleazar for manhandling a cop arrested for allegedly extorting money from a drug suspect.

During his speech at the first anniversary celebration of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission last Wednesday, Duterte said while they are good cops, there are also bad ones.

“That one… Eleazar and he was criticized for that. You tell Eleazar that’s okay,” he said.

The NCRPO chief was seen in a video grabbing the collar of the police officer arrested in an entrapment operation for allegedly being involved in extortion.

“Tell him, I have his back covered,” Duterte added.

Eleazar apologized for the sudden emotional outburst but he clarified he is not apologizing to the cop as he deserved it.

He added that approval of Duterte only shows his consistency in his war against illegal drugs.

“Well, our President is just being consistent on his policy and on his pronouncements. So we saw that he is the one leading in our campaign against illegal drugs,” Eleazar said in an interview with reporters at Camp Bagong Diwa on Thursday.

“He (Duterte) only said that because he saw if someone will trash the organization we are implementing, he will not agree to that. So I can say that I will just continue what we are doing, visiting our organization because if we will not clean our ranks, it can’t help our campaign against illegal drugs,” he added.

For his part, Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde also defended Eleazar saying one will be emotional especially if you are always giving directives to cops to stop their illegal activities.

“Well actually, sometimes you can’t stop the outburst because of too much anger. It’s just the same as parent disciplining their child because of too much anger. Despite of continuous giving of directives to our police officers to stop these kind of activities, these are still being done by a few ,” he explained in a a TV interview.

Albayalde said during his time as the NCRPO chief, he could not control his temper. “It could be different if I was there,” said Albayalde.

He clarified that the arrested cops will undergo due process.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano also supported Eleazar as it is a manifestation of his frustration against scalawag cops.

“His action yesterday was simply a manifestation of his frustration over police scalawags in his unit who continue to tarnish the image of the entire Philippine National Police,” Ano said in a statement.

The DILG chief said there is no place in the PNP for scalawags, especially those who extort money from drug personalities.

“They are not only a disgrace to their uniform but to the good men and women of the PNP, many of whom have given their lives in the relentless anti-drug campaign of the administration,” he said.

“While General Eleazar has already publicly apologized, his outburst was understandable given the circumstances. It was a classic case of a 'father losing his cool over his son's misbehavior' with the goal of correcting it and sending a message to his other children that bad behavior will not be tolerated in his household,” he added.

Ano directed Albayalde to intensify their internal cleansing program until all the bad eggs and rotten cops of the police service are weeded out.

“The Counter Intelligence Task Force must work overtime to finally rid the police service of these undesirables. Let us prove to the President that we are worthy of the doubling of our salaries,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS