A CITY police official said on Friday, February 10, that the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) has received a copy of the memorandum from Camp Crame announcing the activation of the newly formed Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) tasked in rooting out rogue cops in the organization.
Cocpo spokesperson Chief Inspector Mardy Hortillosa said this means the intelligence and investigation units of Cocpo will now begin gathering information and monitoring suspected scalawags.
"Atong gi-disseminate ang memo sa mga police stations ug ang atong intel and investigation units ga-monitor na karon for case build up sa mga police scalawags (We are disseminating the memo in police stations and our intel and investigation units are currently monitoring for the case build up of police scalawags)," Hortillosa said.
Hortillosa said the two units will likely be the counterpart of the CITF in Cocpo.
"The Philippine National Police (PNP) has activated its Counter Intelligence Task Force to neutralize rogue PNP personnel and to proactively preempt other PNP personnel from committing illegal activities,” the memorandum received by Cocpo on Friday said.
But Hortillosa clarified that all information on supposed illegal activities by policemen will be subjected to validation before their names are included in the list of rogue cops.
"So far karon wala pay gi-focus nga Cocpo personnel kay ang mga chismis gina-validate pa man. Diha sa chismis magsugod pero pag ma-prove sa team nga walay kamatuoran i-drop nila diretso (So far, Cocpo personnel is not focusing on anything yet because hearsays are still validated. It all starts there but if the team proves there's no truth in any of it then they will be dropped)," Hortillosa said.
Hortillosa added that if there are hearsays about these scalawags and there is no evidence yet, it should be reported to CITF to be validated.
Following the activation of CITF, Hortillosa is now urging the public to take part and report supposed police scalawags.
"The PNP assures the public that all personnel to be assigned with the CITF shall pass on intensive background investigation and screening process to ensure that the mandate of the task force is carried out accurately," the memorandum said.
The CITF also released its hot line number, 0998-970-2286, where the public can report about errant PNP personnel.
Cocpo also released the headquarters' and police stations' hotline number intended to receive information from tipsters this week.