A SECOND batch of policemen suspected of involvement in illegal drugs will undergo adjudication.
Lieutenant General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for administration, said the PNP’s internal cleansing program continues amid the battle against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Cascolan said the second batch is composed of 352 policemen, including 83 who are on the National Watchlist on Illegal drugs (NWID) and 269 who are on the Counter Intelligence Watchlist (CIW).
He said regional police commanders and national support units were instructed to start the adjudication process and submit their report to the PNP national adjudication board by the third week of May.
The adjudication process should be finished by the first week of June, Cascolan said.
The results would be submitted to PNP Chief Archie Gamboa for review before these are submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The first batch, composed of 357 cops, earlier underwent adjudication.
Cascolan said the result of the said adjudication was submitted to Gamboa in the first week of March, before the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
He refused to give details of the result of the adjudication.
"Wala pa kaming balita, na-busy kami sa Covid eh. We were able to finish that first week of March and we gave that already to the chief PNP for his signature," Cascolan said.
Among the policemen in the first batch is Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, who had received commendation from President Rodrigo Duterte for his accomplishments related to the war on drugs.
Espenido was the police chief of Albuera town in Leyte when its mayor, Rolando Espinosa, was shot dead inside his detention cell in Baybay City, also in Leyte, in November 2016.
Espenido was then assigned to Ozamiz City in Misamis Occidental where he led the raid on the properties of the city mayor, Reynaldo Parojinog, in July 2017.
The mayor, his wife and 13 others were killed while his son Reynaldo Jr and the Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Nova Princess Parojinog were arrested and charged over illegal drugs.
Both Espinosa and Parojinog were tagged as narco-politicians and were on Duterte's watchlist.
Espenido was backed by Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, who supervises the PNP, and former PNP chief now Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
Espenido had blamed his inclusion in the first batch of policemen suspected of illegal drugs activities on “failure of intelligence”. (SunStar Philippines)