His police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, has faced pressure to resign, but instead he said that anti-drugs units would be temporarily dissolved, to rid them of “scalawags�?.

“We will cleanse our ranks..then maybe after that, we can resume our war on drugs. The president told us to clean the organisation first,�? said Dela Rosa.

“I don’t know how long it will take to cleanse the PNP [Philippines National Police]. But with each and every one of us cooperating, helping each other, maybe in a month we can do it.�?

Duterte has come under growing international criticism for the brutality of the war on drugs. After entering office saying he would “be happy to slaughter�? millions of Fillipino drug users and peddlers, he has been accused of instigating a wave of uncontrolled violence.

Thousands of victims, from among the Philippines’ poorest classes, have been murdered by unidentified hit squads. Many of the masked assassins are believed to be linked to the police, a charge the force strongly denies.</s>If the Philippines’ war on drugs isn’t working, it’s because of the corrupt “scalawags” on the police force. Or at least that’s what President Rodrigo Duterte says.

Over 7,000 people have been killed by police and vigilante groups since Duterte started his country-wide anti-narcotics offensive in June, 2016. For months, he rebuffed harsh criticism from human rights groups and international leaders, who accused him of promoting vigilantism and giving cops authority to kill and arrest at whim.

Now, he appears to be backtracking. The murder of a South Korean businessman by rogue Filipino police officers in October, 2016 has given ammunition to Duterte’s critics and pushed him into an embarrassing diplomatic rift with the South Korean government. His response? Start a war on crooked cops.

“You policemen are the most corrupt. You are corrupt to the core. It’s in your system,” Duterte said Sunday in a press conference, a seeming retreat from his steadfast support for Filipino police. “Cleanse your ranks. Review their cases. Give me a list of who the scalawags are,” Duterte said Sunday evening.

Duterte is no stranger to incendiary speech. He once called former President Barack Obama and Pope Francis “sons of whores.” He also boasted about killing people by throwing them out of helicopters — two weeks after political opponents tried to get him impeached for, well, boasting about killing people.

Some human rights experts dismissed Duterte and dela Rosa’s pledge as a stunt. Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, called it a “cynical PR gesture.”

But stunt or not, Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa announced Monday he was dissolving anti-drug units to instead tackle corruption. “We will cleanse our ranks…then maybe after that, we can resume our war on drugs,” he told press. “Rogue cops, beware! We no longer have a war on drugs; we now have a war on scalawags.”

Though Duterte previously pledged to eradicate the country’s drug problem by March, on Monday he said he would continue his anti-narcotics offensive to the end of his term in 2022. After he eradicated police corruption, of course.

Also on Monday, the Philippine senate also (conveniently) suspended the legislative inquiry into the South Korean businessman’s murder, saying it needed to refocus its efforts on observing the new war on corruption. Scalawags, beware.</s>The Philippine police yesterday suspended a controversial war on drugs, as they move to try and purge their ranks of rogue officers.

The 160,000-strong Philippine National Police has been shaken by a scandal over the kidnapping and slaying last year of a South Korean man, allegedly by anti-narcotics officers.

President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday acknowledged widespread corruption in the police force and vowed to "cleanse" it.

The President, however, said his crackdown on illegal drugs would continue until the end of his term in 2022.

SEE TOP OF THE NEWS: Manila suspends war on drugs to purge rogue cops</s>The militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Tuesday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to “end the reign of corruption and impunity” in the Philippine National Police (PNP).

While welcoming the PNP’s suspension of the war on drugs, Bayan said impunity and corruption in the police ranks would lead to the “ultimate failure” of Duterte’s crackdown on narcotics.

READ: War on drugs suspended, purge of bad cops on

“The admission by the President that 40% of the police force is corrupt is an indication that the drug war will ultimately fail. The PNP leadership must address the culture of impunity so deeply rooted in the police force,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said in a statement. “If Duterte is really serious in reforms within the PNP, he must end the reign of impunity and corruption. Top officials should now be held accountable.”

“This is the same mentality that gives rise to the killing of suspects while in detention, the torture of detainees, police violence against peaceful protesters and most recently, murder inside the PNP National Headquarters,” he added, referring to the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside Camp Crame.

READ: Militants urge Duterte to end his war on drugs

PNP chief Dir. Gen. Ronald dela Rosa on Monday announced the suspension of the police’s drug operations while they focus on cleaning their ranks. In effect, Dela Rosa ordered the abolition of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Group and all antidrug units at the national and local levels.

Dela Rosa added that the PNP will form a counter-intelligence unit to weed out rogue policemen. IDL/rga</s>Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the country's police to dissolve its anti-drug units following the killing of a South Korean businessman by rogue officers.

Duterte said Sunday that he was "embarrassed" that anti-drug officers abused their powers, and will change the way the police operates. "Cleanse your ranks. Review their cases. Give me a list of who the scalawags are" he said, in remarks reported by CNN . Duterte has, however, vowed to go ahead with his anti-drug campaign until the last day of six-year term.

Government prosecutors say officers abducted Jee Ick-joo on Oct. 18, strangled him to death at Manila's Philippine National Police headquarters, and asked for a ransom from the slain businessman's wife, Choi Kyung-jin. Duterte has since apologized to South Korea and promised swift retribution.

The killing has added to criticism of Duterte's anti-drug campaign, which unleashed a bloody crackdown that saw about 2,000 killed by the police and another 5,000 killed by suspected vigilantes.</s>Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday ordered the country’s police to disband their anti-drug units after rogue officers killed a South Korean businessman, The Guardian reported. The move has effectively put the country’s war against drugs on hold, with Duterte promising to change the way police forces operate.

Duterte, who apologised to the South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines for Jee Ick-joo’s murder, said he was “embarrassed” by anti-drug officers abusing their powers. “Cleanse your ranks...give me a list of who the scalawags are,” he said at a press conference, according to CNN. He also gave the suspects in the murder 48 hours to surrender and threatened to put a 5-million peso (approximately Rs 68.23 lakh) bounty on them if they hand themselves over to officials.

Meanwhile, national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said it was necessary to disband the anti-drug units to rebuild them. “I will do my job to the best of my ability,” he said. “I hope I will not fail the president and the Filipino people.” However, he added that the disbanding could affect the anti-narcotics campaign in the country.

More than 7,000 people have been killed since the national campaign began after Duterte took office on June 30, 2016. On December 12, the president reportedly told businessmen that he murdered suspects to “show the guys [the police] that if I can do it, why can’t you?”. “I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill,” he said. Earlier in 2015, he had said that he had killed at least three men suspected of kidnapping and rape in Davao.

On December 23, it was reported that the Philippines Commission on Human Rights would investigate claims that the president killed criminals while serving as mayor of the city of Davao. The Commission said it would also probe reports claiming that “death squads” killed several hundred people in the city.</s>'Because of the gravity of the charges... if I were Dumlao I'd stay inside [Camp Crame],' says the President, ordering the cop to stay under PNP custody and face the charges against him

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte named Superintendent Rafael Dumlao the mastermind in the abduction and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.

"If you do not come out, I will offer P5 million [for you], dead or alive," said the President in a press conference at around 11:30 pm. "You put the reputation of the police in shambles."

As the press conference was ongoing, however, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa told Duterte that Dumlao was already back in PNP custody.

Dumlao had been under restrictive custody at Camp Crame, the PNP headquarters, but slipped out on Saturday, January 28, supposedly after police failed to serve an arrest warrant against him. But Dela Rosa said Dumlao was back in Camp Crame on Sunday, and had supposedly promised to "tell all."

"He has to be investigated," Duterte later said during the press conference. "Because of the gravity of the charges... if I were Dumlao I'd stay inside [Camp Crame]... Galit ako, kasi pati ako napahiya (I'm angry, because I was also humiliated)."

Jee was killed right inside Camp Crame in October 2016. He was abducted from his home in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Senior Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta Isabel, considered a principal suspect in the case, claimed he is a mere fall guy and that he got orders from Dumlao, his former chief in the PNP's Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG). (READ: Jee Ick Joo case: Tangled webs, inconsistent stories)

Last Thursday, January 26, Duterte had vowed that Jee's killers would go to prison.

"Tang ina kayong pulis, bantay kayo, hindi ko kayo papalusutin (Police, you sons of bitches, I won't let you get away with it). You will suffer. Maybe I can send your heads to South Korea," said the President.

He also apologized to South Koreans on behalf of the Philippine government. "I apologize for the death of your compatriot. We are very sorry that it had to happen." – Rappler</s>MANILA: Philippine police are suspending their anti-narcotics operation until they have cleansed their ranks of "scalawags", the chief of the force said on Monday, following the killing of a South Korean businessmen by rogue officers.

The police campaign, dubbed "Oplan Double Barrel", which also includes "Tokhang", in which police go house to house knocking on doors in search of drug suspects, has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 suspected drug users and pushers.

"To all the rogue cops, beware! We no longer have a war on drugs. We now have a war on scalawags," Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Ronald dela Rosa told a news conference.

Dela Rosa's pronouncement came a few hours after he said he would disband anti-drugs units following the kidnapping and killing of businessman Jee Ick-joo in the national police headquarters in October.

The president and his police chief "should categorically give the order to end the killings," said Senator Leila De Lima, President Rodrigo Duterte's most outspoken critic.

The dismantling of the anti-drug units meant "they are aware that the very men involved in anti-drug operations...are involved in illegal activities under the guise of the so-called war on drugs," she told ANC television.

But Duterte vowed on Sunday to forge ahead with his war on drugs until the last day of his term.

"We will cleanse our ranks...then maybe after that, we can resume our war on drugs. The president told us to clean the organisation first," Dela Rosa said.

"I don't know how long it will take to cleanse the PNP. But with each and every one of us cooperating, helping each other, maybe in a month, we can do it."

The anti-drug campaign has caused alarm in the West and rights groups accuse Duterte of turning a blind eye to a wave of alleged extrajudicial killings by police, mostly of low-level peddlers. Police deny this, claiming self-defence.

Duterte said police officials who had been the subject of internal investigations should be reassigned to work in conflict zones.

Fighting drugs and crime was the key platform of Duterte's election campaign, during which he promised to eradicate illicit drugs within six months. His term ends in 2022.

He said he underestimated the depth of problem, and on Sunday promised the crackdown would continue until the end of his six-year presidency, and criticism would not stop him.</s>Choi Kyung-jin (left), widow of Jee Ick-joo, the South Korean businessman kidnapped and killed by rogue Filipino policemen, at the start of a Senate probe into the killing on Thursday.

MANILA: Three Philippine police charged with robbery and extortion have been transferred instead of suspended or sacked, authorities said Thursday, fuelling concerns about immunity for rogue officers prosecuting President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war.

The announcement of the punishments for the trio came as a Senate inquiry began into the murder of a South Korean businessman allegedly by anti-drug police officers who extorted money from his wife.

Critics of Duterte’s drug war, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives, say he has emboldened corrupt officers with his repeated pledges that he will shield police if they are charged for killing drug suspects.

Duterte personally ordered the three officers, accused of extorting a mother and son of 120,000 pesos (Dh8,815; $2,400) last week in Manila, to the violence-plagued south of the country, a police statement said on Thursday.

“This is part of the continuous internal cleansing of (the city police),” Guillermo Eleazar, their police chief in Quezon City, a district of the capital, said in the statement.

“(It) should serve as a lesson for those involved in illegal activities and also a stern warning for others not to do the same.”

Duterte had previously vowed to transfer corrupt policemen to an autonomous region in the strife-torn southern Philippines, where security forces are battling several militant groups, leading to protests from the local authorities.

“We need the best of our country’s police on our side — not the worst,” Mujiv Hataman, the regional governor, said this month.

“Erring law enforcers must be held accountable. Sending them to the (region) is not a disciplinary action, rather it is a move that portrays our region as undeserving of dignified and dedicated public service.”

Duterte, 71, has said he must take extraordinary measures to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state and Filipinos from becoming slaves to drugs.

But critics fear the police force, regarded as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country, is spearheading a campaign of extrajudicial killings while corrupt officers are using the campaign as cover for their own rackets.

Duterte said this week he would tolerate them earning “sideline” money, a euphemism for various corrupt activities, as long as that did not involve drugs.

National police chief Ronald Dela Rosa told the Senate inquiry on Thursday that the anti-drugs officer accused of murdering the Korean businessman had been suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of a woman in 2007.

“How can a police officer with allegations of that sort be assigned to speciality units like the Anti-Illegal Drugs Group,” said Senator Vicente Sotto.</s>The Philippine police yesterday suspended President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs, as it refocuses its efforts on purging its ranks of rogue officers.

The move comes as the 160,000-strong Philippine National Police (PNP) is shaken by a scandal over the kidnapping and slaying last year of a South Korean man, allegedly by anti-narcotics officers.

"There is no war on drugs for the meantime. We're shifting to a war on scalawags. We will clean our own ranks first. Then after that, maybe, we can resume the war on drugs," director-general Ronald de la Rosa, the PNP chief, told reporters.

Hours earlier, at a late evening news conference on Sunday, Mr Duterte ordered the PNP to disband its anti-illegal drugs group, and all precinct-level anti-narcotics units.

"Something has to be corrected severely… Let me reorganise the system," he said, describing the police force as "the most corrupt".
• President Rodrigo Duterte takes office and immediately sets in motion a crackdown on crime. During his campaign, he promised to end the drug menace in three to six months.
• At his State of the Nation Address, Mr Duterte says there are nearly four million drug addicts in the Philippines. Official figures, though, place it closer to 1.8 million.
• Mr Duterte hits out at then US President Barack Obama for criticising his anti-crime drive. By then, more than 2,400 have been killed by either police or vigilantes.
• Mr Duterte asks for a six-month extension of his self-imposed deadline.
• Mr Duterte marks his first 100 days in office. The death toll has risen to 3,500. The number would later be revised down to 2,300. Police explain that a number of deaths are not drug-related.
• Anti-narcotics officers seize South Korean Jee Ick Joo, under the pretence of a drug raid.
• The number of drug suspects killed breaches 6,000. Of the total, 2,102 are killed in police operations and the rest by unknown suspects.
• The Philippine Daily Inquirer publishes a report on Mr Jee's kidnapping and possible murder.
• South Korea's foreign ministry confirms receiving a report that Mr Jee has been killed, purportedly by rogue cops. Six suspects are named.
• Police Director-General Ronald de la Rosa confirms that Mr Jee was killed inside the headquarters of the police's top brass.
• Police suspend the anti-crime drive to focus on "cleansing" their ranks.

"You are corrupt to the core. It's in your system," the President said, suggesting that two in five policemen are probably tainted.

Mr de la Rosa had offered to resign, but Mr Duterte said: "What good will come of it? You can't be blamed for this." Mr de la Rosa was police chief when Mr Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao.

The "internal cleansing" of the police force arose from a discovery that errant cops were behind the abduction and murder of Mr Jee Ick Joo, a South Korean businessman.

Mr Jee was seized in October by an anti-narcotics team, under the pretence of a drug raid. He was taken to a compound inside the camp housing the headquarters of the PNP's top brass in Manila. While there, and just steps away from Mr de la Rosa's office, police officer Ricky Santa Isabel strangled Mr Jee.

Santa Isabel then demanded a ransom of five million pesos (S$143,300) from Mr Jee's wife. Not knowing Mr Jee was already dead, she paid on Oct 31. But Santa Isabel then asked for another four million pesos.

During a Senate hearing last week, Santa Isabel tagged his supervisor Rafael Dumlao as the "brains" behind the kidnapping and slaying.

On Sunday, Mr Duterte offered a five million peso reward for Dumlao's arrest, "dead or alive".

"You deliver him to me dead, I'm okay with that… (Dumlao) put the reputation of the police in shambles," he said.

Mr de la Rosa afterwards informed Mr Duterte that Dumlao was already in police custody, and that Dumlao had confessed to the crime.

Mr de la Rosa said he does not know how long the police purge will last. He said he will form a "counter-intelligence task force" to go after errant cops, and a new "narcotics command" may be set up later.

Mr Duterte, meanwhile, said his crackdown on illegal drugs will continue until the end of his term in 2022.

"I will extend it to the last day of my term. March no longer applies," he said.

He had promised during his campaign to rid the Philippines of the "drug menace" in six months. He later asked for three more months, saying he was unaware, until he assumed office, how widespread the problem had become.

Critics questioned the sincerity of the police "cleansing".

Mr Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said "it is nothing less than an empty public relations gesture".

Mr Renato Reyes, secretary-general of Bayan (Nation), a coalition of leftist activist groups, said: "How can a corrupt and fascist police force, where impunity is the norm, successfully stamp out criminal activities such as the illegal drug trade? The body count will continue to rise and more criminals in uniform will wreak havoc on the people."

SEE WORLD: Duterte accuses US of building arms depots
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suspends the war on drugs so resources can focus on ridding “corrupt” officers from the Philippine National Police. The cause célèbre is the kidnapping and strangulation of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo last October.