Philippine National Police Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa should immediately quit to save his boss from further embarrassment after damning details emerged that his officers were involved in the kidnapping and murder of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Friday.
“The commission of a heinous crime right under his very nose is not only an insult but a clear indication that he has lost the respect of his people,” Alvarez said.
Dela Rosa should save President Duterte “from further embarrassment and restore respect” to the PNP chief’s office by quitting, Alvarez said.
PNP chief’s boo-boos
“Dela Rosa should buckle down to work or better yet, give the job to someone else who is dead serious in leading the PNP in its multipronged war against drugs, criminals and scalawags within its ranks,” Alvarez said in a statement.
He noted that social media was “replete” with videos of Dela Rosa’s “boo-boos,” including one that showed him running “like a headless chicken” after a firecracker he was holding started to smoke.
“How can we believe the stern statements Dela Rosa had been making against criminals … when he was the first to run in the slightest possibility of danger?” Alvarez asked.
Dela Rosa branded the quit call as “cruel” and dared Alvarez to “tell the President to fire me.”
“Do they think I’m enjoying my work so they want me to resign?” he said. “That’s too much. How cruel of them to say that I should resign.”
Alvarez’s call came as more details about Jee’s abduction and murder surfaced, with the government facing mounting calls to formally apologize to Seoul. It was also the strongest statement coming from an ally of President Duterte who, like Dela Rosa, hails from his southern bailiwick.
Jee, a former executive of South Korean firm Hanjin, was taken in October in the guise of a drug raid and then strangled. His captors later extorted a P5-million ransom from his wife.
The alleged ringleader, policeman Ricky Sta.
