PNP officers named by Ong face probe

The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Police Commission (Napolcom) have created a joint fact-finding committee to look into allegations that some ranking police officials were involved in the illegal drug trade.

Director Reynaldo Acop and Superintendents John Campos and Francisco Villaroman will be the first police officials to face investigation, according to PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza.

The probe panel, headed by Chief Superintendent Lucas Managuelod, chief of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management ( DIDM), was given two weeks to wrap up its mission.

The inquiry was triggered by the testimony of former police civilian agent Mary "Rosebud" Ong during a Senate hearing on the alleged involvement of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in criminal activities while he was still PNP chief and head of the controversial Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

"Mary Ong’s allegations are serious and need serious attention, both by the PNP and the Napolcom," Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina said during a press conference at Camp Crame yesterday.

In her testimony at the joint hearing of the Senate committees on public order and illegal drugs, national defense and the Blue Ribbon, Ong cited Acop, Campos and Villaroman as maintaining links with big-time drug syndicates during Lacson’s watch as PNP chief.

"We will leave no stone unturned in this investigation as we strongly condemn this criminal act," Lina said.

Ong, who was also at Camp Crame yesterday, clarified that she was not accusing any official of the present PNP hierarchy of any wrongdoing.

She indicated that she realized the uproar caused by her allegation that Camp Crame had been turned into the center of the illegal drug trade during Lacson’s tenure. "I was referring to circumstances that transpired prior to General Mendoza’s assumption as chief of the PNP," she clarified.

Ong called on the police officials and men to join hands in combating the drug menace and other forms of criminality.

She dared anti-crime crusader Teresita Ang-See to also testify at the Senate hearing to air her side on the controversy.

Meanwhile, Ong appeared to have won the support of various police groups for her own battle against corruption in the PNP.

"We strongly abhor and condemn any wrongdoing committed by policemen," said Managuelod, founding chairman of the Police ROTC Graduates for Integrity, Morality and Order.

For his part, Deputy Director Rex Piad, chairman of the Police Cavaliers Association, declared that the entire membership of his organization solidly support the present PNP leadership’s thrust to purge the service of misfits and scalawags, as well as the fight against criminality and lawlessness.

"As we demand full investigation into the allegations made by Mary Ong against some police officials, we are also calling on those who are out to discredit the present (PNP) leadership to come out into the open," Piad said.

In another development, former PNP chief Roberto Lastimoso revealed that "Oplan Cyclops" carried out by the PNP Narcotics Group, then headed by Acop, merely served as a money-making machine of corrupt police officials.

Lastimoso lamented that while the concept and objectives of the operation were good, it had turned into a monster because of corruption.

He said Cyclops agents would normally arrest suspected drug lords who would eventually be released upon payment of a multimillion-peso ransom.

Lastimoso also claimed that drugs seized by Acop’s men were invariably re-channeled back to the market by the narcotics agents themselves.