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Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Nicolas Torre III said his cops will intensify arrests to address criminality, but distinguished this from the Duterte government that killed alleged criminals.
“So kung may mga snatcher, tambay, mga nanggugulo diyan, alisin natin ang mga kriminal na iyan. At para maalis ang mga kriminal na iyan, iisa ang paraan, hulihin natin; huwag natin pabayaan. Hulihin natin, dalhin natin sa husgado,” the newly-appointed PNP chief said during a Malacañang briefing on Wednesday, June 4.
“Hindi ito iyong dating nangyayari na patay ang tao, ang nagrereklamo ay iyong pamilya — hindi ganoon. Ang hinuli mismo, buhay iyan, puwedeng kumuha ng karapatan at puwedeng kumuha ng abogado dahil iyan ay kanyang karapatan,” he added.
(So if there are snatchers, bystanders who disturb peace, let’s get rid of those alleged criminals. And to get rid of them, there’s only one way: arrest them and don’t just let them be. Arrest them and bring them to court. This is not the same as before when people are killed, and their families complain — it’s not going to be like that. Whoever is arrested is alive and is entitled to rights and a lawyer because that is a right.)
But his use of the word “paramihan” (getting the most number) — in reference to arrests — raised some concern because it seemed to effectively imply incentives for most arrests. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said “highlighting number of arrests as a performance metric may unintentionally pressure officers to prioritize quantity over quality.”
Referring to Duterte’s anti-drug campaign or “Oplan Tokhang” that was characterized by quotas for cops, the CHR said: “Historically, such frameworks have risked incentivizing shortcuts, abusive, or arbitrary practices, which undermine human rights and erode public trust in law enforcement.”
Torre clarified that his order to intensify arrests goes beyond drug suspects, covering other crimes.
“Okay ngayon, paramihin — tama iyon, dapat, para magkaroon ng kompetisyon ang ating mga pulis sa ating mga pamayanan. Titigil lang tayo sa panghuhuli kapag wala na tayong makitang kriminal. At kung wala ng kriminal ay tapos na rin ang trabaho ng pulis diyan. So, paramihan talaga iyan. Ito ang ating gustong i-emphasize diyan — huli, hindi patay, okay?” Torre said.
(Now, increasing the numbers — this is correct to encourage competition among cops in our communities. We will only stop if we have arrested all criminals. And if there are no longer criminals then the job of cops is done. This is what we want to emphasize — arrests, not killings, okay?)
In all his statements, Torre had been highlighting respect for human rights by the police force under him. But the CHR said the PNP needs to have clear-cut guidelines for the promise to be true.
“We encourage the PNP leadership to issue clear, rights-based guidelines for performance evaluation, ensuring that any operational targets do not compromise civil liberties or lead to discrimination, especially against vulnerable sectors who are prone to abuse due to lack of access to remedies,” the CHR said.
How about safeguards?
Torre said Filipinos just need to “trust the process,” adding that abusive cops will be held accountable.
“Hindi ko mai-a-assure sa iyo na hindi nila gagawin. Pero kapag ginawa nila, idi-dismiss ko sila sa serbisyo…ikukulong ko sila for incriminatory machinations,” Torre said. (I cannot assure you that they won’t do that. But if they do, I will dismiss them from service, I will detain them for incriminatory machinations.) “So, they really cannot…unless they will resign, they cannot violate that order,” Torre added.
He also said the safeguards are the available judicial mechanisms such as the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the Office of the Ombudsman. Realistically speaking, however, these mechanisms did not deter police under Duterte from committing abuses.
In total, out of the thousands killed in anti-drug operations under the former president, there have only been four convictions of cops involved in these operations.
The drug war reinvestigation was premised on the fact that cops were meted only light penalties despite lapses in operations that resulted in deaths. Even the reinvestigation itself had dismal results, with 32 out of 52 handpicked cases being closed without criminal actions.
Really, arrests again?
Torre is following direct orders from Marcos who said that it’s time to return to an anti-drug campaign that focuses on small-time peddlers — a reaction to what he said were lessons from the midterm elections. Marcos said, without citing hard data, that streets are becoming unsafe from the sale of drugs.
It contradicts recommendations from a United Nations-backed group which his government initially supported. These included exploring the decriminalization of low-level drug offenses and viewing drug use as a complex health and social issue.
“This proposal, lacking a solid evidence base, seems impractical and poorly thought out from an implementation perspective,” said physician RJ Naguit of the group Drug Policy Reform Initiative, which was among the government’s civil society partners in the UN-backed dialogue.
From a criminal justice perspective, intensifying arrests will also go against jail decongestion efforts that the Marcos administration has been parading before the international community.
In 2023, no less than the Department of Justice acknowledged that one of the ways to ease jail congestion was to decrease the number of people being arrested, reducing the amount of bail, and setting a higher threshold of evidence required in prosecuting an alleged crime.
A Rappler investigation in 2024 showed that arrests made during Duterte’s drug war pushed jails to their breaking point, as prison populations breached the 100,000 mark and suspects were held hostage in severely delayed trials. – Rappler.com
