Despite statements from President Rodrigo Duterte and PNP chief Dir. Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa just kills criminals and drug personalities, a policeman raising God’s command “do not kill”.
Allatog is a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy and has also studied at the FBI Academy in the United States.
In 2014, Allatog was honored as one of the most outstanding officers in the country.
His extraordinary strategy: “I just told my officers, ‘Don’t kill.’
“Don’t kill. That ought to go unsaid, but Duterte and his top cop, General Ronald dela Rosa, talk incessantly of slaughter, casting mass killing as necessary, even just.
The scope of the violence is such that the International Criminal Court’s lead prosecutor warned that they could be investigated on charges of crimes against humanity.
According to Bogo City local government, no one killed or contributed drug personality under the leadership of Allatog.
Despite this, Allatog was disappointed with the seeming lack of accountability of the police.
Policing, to him, is not politics but principle. “I’m not saying anything against the president. I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
Allatog saw that it would be tough to keep his men in line. They knew the president had promised to pardon officers who shot drug suspects.
They also had heard rumours that off-duty officers were making 5,000 to 10,000 pesos (S$133 – S$266) for freelance “vigilante-style” kills.
He told his men that they would be doing things differently. If they shot needlessly or for money, he would not protect them. And they should not count on the president either, he warned.
“Those are politicians. They don’t give a s– about you,” he recalls telling them.
“You are just a low-level officer. If you go to prison, that doesn’t affect the economy. They will not care.”
He believed anti-drug operations should tackle supply (big-time dealers) as well as demand (users). From a policing standpoint, shooting street-level users would not be enough. Nor could he, as a Catholic, stomach it.
“I’m not active in church, but I know what’s right, and it’s not right to kill somebody,” he said.
“It’s within the Ten Commandments that I’ve been memorizing since grade one,” Allatog said.
If the neutralize means for Dela Rosa to shoot and kill the suspect, Allatog believes something else. “When we ‘neutralize’ suspects – the thing is, they are alive.
They are in jail. The others do not know how to use Google to find the meaning? “Allatog added.
He recently put forward a petition that called on the PNP to focus on community-based rehabilitation. “We enjoin the rest of our colleagues to stand with us, To Serve and Protect with Honor and Justice,” it read.
And he stands by his record of ordinary, slow-and-steady work: “I didn’t kill anybody, but I was able to accomplish a lot.”
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