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The Philippines
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Philippines’ Marcos Jnr removes pro-Duterte police officers … to pre-empt a coup attempt?

  • Davao City mayor Sebastian Duterte says 35 police officers were removed after he had declared a drug war in which seven drug suspects were killed
  • President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has warned of ‘blatant attempts of destabilisation’ and urged the Philippine military to stay loyal to him

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Philippine Police Colonel Richard Bad-ang, one of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s most trusted police officers, has been removed from post as Davao City police chief. Photo: Handout
Raissa Robles
The government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has stripped dozens of police officers known to be loyal to former leader Rodrigo Duterte of their positions amid growing concerns of a coup plot.

On Thursday, one of Duterte’s most trusted police officers, Police Colonel Richard Bad-ang, was removed from post as Davao City police chief. The next day, 34 other police officers, including six station commanders, were removed from their posts, according to Davao City mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, the youngest son of the former president.

The officers have been suspended from duty and are under investigation for the deaths of seven suspected drug dealers killed in buy-bust operations after Bad-ang’s appointment on March 22. The city’s 36-year-old mayor had declared a drug war that same day and warned, “If you don’t stop, if you don’t leave, I will kill you.”

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) with then-Philippine National Police director general Ronald Dela Rosa in January 2017. Photo: AFP
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) with then-Philippine National Police director general Ronald Dela Rosa in January 2017. Photo: AFP

“As far as the Dutertes are concerned, all destabilisation and ouster options are on the table such as people power, withdrawal of support, coup d’etat, rebellion, secession, impeachment and even assassination,” former senator Antonio Trillanes IV told This Week in Asia on Monday.

News reports said two battalions of police Special Action Forces, under the command of the Philippine National Police (PNP), also arrived in Davao City at about the same time the officers were relieved of their duties.

Duterte cultivated close personal relationships with the police force of Davao during the 22 years he served as its mayor. When he became president from 2016-22, he appointed trusted Davao officers to senior positions in the PNP, including Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa as its head and others as police station chiefs in Metro Manila and elsewhere, to carry out his operations against illegal drug users and dealers.

A complaint has been filed against Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for his alleged “crimes against humanity” during the drug war. The Duterte administration previously said the crackdown killed at least 6,000 people, but human rights groups claim the toll could be as high as 30,000.
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