PAMPANGA, Philippines – Saying he was "compelled by a sense of duty," President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, July 5, named 5 police generals allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.
"I am compelled by my sense of duty to tell you the police who contributed to deterioration of law and order in this country," he said at the 69th anniversary of the Philippine Air Force in Clark Freeport.
The 5 are retired director general Marcelo Garbo Jr, former National Capital Region Police Office chief Joel Pagdilao, former Quezon City Police District Office chief Edgardo Tinio, former Region 11 police chief Bernardo Diaz, and Vic Loot, who is now mayor of Daanbantayan, Cebu.
Duterte ordered those among the 5 still in active service "relieved" from their posts.
Duterte lamented that the education of these police officers and others allegedly like them were funded by taxpayers' money, but they turned to drug trafficking that destroy people's lives.
He said such crimes "by any language...is really treason."
"We have long suspected na may maraming pulis na involved sa drugs (that there are a lot of police officers involved in drugs). I am not ready yet with the other branches of government, agencies like Customs – I still have to validate, but I already have the raw information," Duterte said.