The Department of National Defense (DND) asked for an official order on the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to support the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and to capture rogue cops.

“The Department of National Defense (DND) has requested the Office of the Executive Secretary to issue an official order regarding this presidential directive to serve as a legal basis for our troops to follow,” said Arsenio Andolong, public affairs chief of the defense department, on Wednesday. .

“By the same token, the President’s verbal directive to arrest ‘scalawag cops’ should also be covered by a formal order,” he added.

Andolong said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana made the request to the Office of the Executive Secretary last Tuesday.

Andolong said a verbal order should be followed by a written order to have clear details on what needs to be done.

“It is difficult to move if there is no (written order) especially knowing the defense department and the AFP, everything is ran through papers, we have to have orders so that we will know where we will stand, because without the order there will be a problem on the details, up to what extent the will actions be covered,” Andolong said.

Andolong said the AFP does not have a mandate to affect an arrest.

“If you could remember even in the fields if there are operations it is the police who implement the arrest warrant, that is why the two units should always work together,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS