Joe Pallugna EARLY Monday morning was greeted with great news with the announcement by President Rodrigo Duterte that he abolished the corrupt and abusive Anti- Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) to which kidnapping suspect Supt. Rafael Dumlao once belonged to. I am certain that such swift action was with the strong recommendation of PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa. I have talked to dela Rosa over the phone on Jan. 20, 2016, when I informed him that my client, SPO3 Ricky Sta. Isabel, had been consistently asserting that he was just a “fall guy” in the claims of the PNP that he headed the kidnapping and murder of Korean Jee Ict Joo. Bato was fuming mad when he learned of the supposed defenses and alibis by Sta. Isabel but I told Bato to listen also to the evidence that Sta. Isabel has against Supt. Dumlao and other officers of the PNP. Then Bato calmed down and began to consider the fact that there might be some senior officers directly or even indirectly involved. After some 20 minutes of our conversation, he ordered the immediate restriction to Camp Crame of Supt. Dumlao, pending further investigation. That was quick action on his part. The following week, Bato discovered more pieces of evidence that would make complicit some senior officers of the AIDG and even of the Anti Kidnapping Group (AKG), as another police colonel of the AKG has allegedly accompanied Supt. Dumlao to the house of Sta. Isabel to persuade him to admit to the kidnapping of Jee. The Jan. 6 Senate inquiry threw in the last straw on the camel’s back and the decision to abolish the AIDG was finalized. Indeed, the reinvestigation of the Jee kidnapping will reveal the whole truth and many more. Certainly, the Jee kidnapping was not an isolated incident. It was just the tip of the iceberg. Have you heard of the “Ninja Cops” in Metro Manila? That’s another topic for this column in the future. They also involve some of the same police officers in an intertwined web of corruption and abuse. And the AIDG has lost its credibility with the arrest of Sta. Isabel and the expected issuance of the proper warrant of arrest against Supt. Dumlao for the Jee kidnapping. As the reinvestigation will be completed by the DOJ soon, more names of suspects from the AIDG and other police agencies will surface. The abolition of the AIDG is just timely, if only to project to the people that President Duterte and Chief dela Rosa are dead serious in the cleansing effort of the PNP. And the next to be abolished should be the Philippine Drug Enforement Agency (PDEA). It is so riddled with corruption that many families of victims of abuse and thievery by some PDEA agents and officers during the raids can come up to a formal investigation by Malacanang. Hundreds of thousands of cash, jewelry, electronic gadgets and appliances and personal stuff have been stolen by PDEA agents during drug raids and arrests. This can be proven if President Duterte will create a website where abuses can be reported by ordinary folks, victims who cower in fear of PDEA retributions. Yes, the light of day is coming. The full abuses of the AIDG will be uncovered by President Duterte soon. The abuses of the PDEA are next in line. And when this happens, the citizenry will heave a sigh of relief and know that voting for Duterte last May 2016 was indeed the right thing to do. E-mail: ajpallugna@gmail.com