Bongbong Marcos has asked more than 900 police chiefs to resign
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe minister of the interior, Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos, has asked all the country’s police generals and colonels to resign by January 31st. Mr Abalos promises a government committee will then reject the resignations of all except those suspected of corrupt involvement in the drugs trade. Some will be prosecuted, says Mr Abalos.
The ploy is designed to get around the difficulty of defenestrating civil servants. It has incentivised the police chiefs to resign on the basis that appearing reluctant to do so could make them look guilty. The government used a similar trick to clean up the, General Rodolfo Azurin, has said that fewer than ten senior officers are suspected of wrongdoing.
For Mr Marcos, discontinuing Mr Duterte’s grisly policy is an opportunity to mend the reputation of his family dynasty, tarnished by the corrupt regime of his late father, the first President Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled from 1965 to 1986. But the new approach mainly indicates that the drugs war failed.
Law enforcers say at least 6,250 people were killed in drug operations during Mr Duterte’s six years in office. Unofficial tallies suggest the toll may have been several thousand higher. Many of the victims were addicts or low-level hustlers. Some were allegedly murdered to prevent them revealing evidence of police involvement in the drugs trade. The violence achieved little. Abuse of methamphetamine hydrochloride, oras Filipinos call their street-drug of choice, remains rife.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline"May the force be without you"
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