So the Department of Interior and Local Government has asked high ranking police officials all over the country to submit courtesy resignations because there are those that are apparently involved in the illegal drug trade.
The pronouncement was apparently made upon the recommendation of the PNP chief, as DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos expressed concern over the number of law enforcers reportedly linked to drugs.
According to Abalos, the government will form a committee which will review the records of police officials to determine if they are involved in the drug trade. He also clarified that police officials will remain in the service as long as their courtesy resignations are not accepted by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In a most classic callback to the PNP’s own infamous Oplan Tokhang that many of the affected police officials most likely prosecuted with glee against drug suspects who weren’t afforded due process, the high ranking cops were told that the innocent will have “nothing to worry about.” Looking at it from a cynical observer’s point of view, it’s almost poetic how swiftly karma strikes sometimes.
One explanation of the courtesy resignation method is that it’s apparently the fastest way to clean the PNP, as there exists a long judicial process for dealing with erring officials. At this point, the similarities to Tokhang that it would be funny if it weren’t the lives of the rich and powerful police officials at stake. Our government then was too lazy to properly implement the law against those suspected of being involved in drugs, resorting to Tokhang and extrajudicial killings. Now it is too lazy to properly investigate and charge police officials suspected of being involved with drugs so they just asked everyone to submit courtesy resignations. That would be the epitome of a lazy government.
This is also interesting because the government’s drug war is the flagship program of the previous administration. After spending six years fighting a bloody and indiscriminate war that targeted mostly the poor and defenseless, are we supposed to be surprised that there are allegedly high level protectors of drug lords and cartels in the upper echelons of government and law enforcement? It looks like the illegal drug bogeyman has been revived once again, but this time the sights have been set on the higher value targets instead of cannon fodder.
Too lazy to come up with proof and evidence of involvement in illegal drugs, high ranking officials have been asked to resign. Their courtesy resignations will then either be accepted or rejected, depending on the whim of an all-powerful committee that will stand as judge, jury and executioner of these policemen’s careers. That’s the Duterte administration’s Tokhang on steroids, due process be damned.
The DILG says it is cleaning the highest ranks of the PNP of misfits and scalawags. That is a certainly noble goal to aspire for, but if you come to think of it, this demand for courtesy resignations doesn’t smell like an earnest effort to clean the ranks of the PNP. It smells more like a loyalty check designed to easily weed out those whose loyalties do not belong to the new sheriff in town.
Oplan Tokhang, and now oplan courtesy resignation, is apparently how our government does things now. Too lazy to investigate, present evidence and give the accused the opportunity to defend themselves, our government officials have discovered that they can just go around cutting corners, as long as the justification is illegal drugs.
I’m actually not so worried for the police colonels and generals who are the targets of this current operation. Unlike the dirt poor targets of the Duterte drug war, most of these people didn’t make it to where they are by sheer luck. They know how to play the game, have the connections and can probably handle themselves.
What is worrying is how almost all government officials in this country are quick to support this lazy-ass crackdown that does not even pretend to go through due process anymore. It seems like the elected officials and so-called leaders of this land would rather toe the line than view due process as a necessity for all Filipinos, regardless of standing in life. They call, almost unanimously for police officials to obey the lazy command to submit courtesy resignation letters but if you come to think of it, if the shoe were on the other foot and they were suddenly pressured into submitting their own courtesy resignations just because a small percentage of them are suspected to be involved in drugs, just how quickly would they invoke their rights to due process?
When police colonels and generals are being pressured to give up their right to due process and submit courtesy resignations, what will happen to the due process they should afford to the regular and powerless Filipino that they are supposed to serve and protect? Will they also “request” courtesy imprisonments from suspects to make their jobs easier?
Do our leaders who want to send us down this slippery slope think they will be in positions of power and influence all the time? Or will we just have to wait for another new sheriff to come around and then serve them their dose of karma to make them remember what it was like to demand due process?*
