Dela Rosa orders cops to sustain momentum of anti-drug campaign

August 30, 2017

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa ordered police officers to conduct "full speed" anti-illegal drugs operation amid issues over the death of a 17 year old student Kian Delos Santos.

"My instruction to the RDs (Regional Directors), I am not ordering you to slow down. I am not ordering you to stop but I am ordering you to be on full speed", Dela Rosa said in a press conference in Camp Crame on Wednesday.

He said the death of Delos Santos who was allegedly killed by a police officer in an anti-criminality operation in Caloocan City on August 16 served as a lesson to policemen.

"The intensity ( of the anti-drug operation) will remain. The eagerness in their work should still be there. They should not wilt but make sure you have to do your things properly. You operate according to the police operational procedures so there will be no problem", he said.

Delos Santos was shot three times based on the autopsy of the Philippine Attorney's Office (PAO). The PNP crime laboratory and PAO  told a Senate hearing last week that the boy was shot while kneeling and face down.

PO3 Arnel Oares, PO1 Jeremias Pereda and PO1 Jerwin Cruz are facing murder charges filed by the family of Delos Santos, who were assisted by the PAO, before the Department of Justice.

Duterte and the parents of the 17 year old boy met August 28. The president wants those at fault to be accounted for, he said.

When asked what did the president tell the family of Delos Santos, he said:"Fix the problem and let those at fault pay. That is what he wants". Alanna Ambi/DMS