A rights group urged the country’s new top cop to end Philippine National Police (PNP)’s quota arrests policy and the filing of fake charges against activists.
Political prisoner support group Kapatid called on P./Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. to rescind his predecessor’s directive to arrest as many suspected drug personalities as part of a new performance metric for the organization.
“We also call on the new PNP leadership to end the well-worn script of planting firearms and fabricating charges to jail activists and start living up to the human rights principles the institution claims to observe,” Kapatid said in reaction to the shakeup in the PNP’s top leadership yesterday, August 26.
The group said Police General Nicolas Torre III’s order on the day he assumed top command of the country’s police force last June 2 may worsen impunity and jail congestion without truly addressing crime.
“Kasama sa metrics natin ang number of arrests. Paramihan, sige! Paramihan!” Torre said.
Torre tried to qualify his remarks following intense criticism from human rights groups, saying he only intended to prioritize safer streets .
As head of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group immediately prior to becoming chief PNP, Torre’s subordinates arrested a Prudencio C. Calubid Jr. in Olongapo City who the court ordered release for being wrongfully arrested.
READ: No compensation for Prudencio Calubid Jr.
In his Assumption of Office speech at Camp Crame yesterday, Nartatez briefly acknowledged Torre, thanking his predecessor’s “steering” of the PNP “to where it is now.”
In a move that surprised the country, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the relief of Torre who was chief PNP for less than three months.
Torre has made himself scarce since Monday and has yet to issue a statement on his abrupt sacking. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
