The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed concern over the recent statement of the newly appointed police chief noting that the performance of every cop will be based on the number of arrested drug suspects.

In a television interview, CHR Commissioner Beda Epres said the statement of Major General Nicolas Torre III is scary and is "open for abuse".

He explained that the performance of every policeman should be based on the right process of arrest instead of the number of arrested individuals involved in illegal drugs.

"It should be measured by checking who underwent the right process of arrest. Did that person get arrested because he committed a crime?," he said.

"If we rely on numbers, maybe a higher number of arrests will be done only for the sake of complying with the directive. The process of the arrest may not be right, or there may not be enough evidence. It’s very alarming. It’s open to abuse, and we’re alarmed by that," he added.

In a press conference following the change of command ceremony at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Monday, Torre said the number of arrests is included in PNP metrics.

"Let's see who will have the most number of arrests," he said.

However, Torre noted that the PNP will have to "make sure that everything that we (police) do is within the ambit of the law."

"If you're really a good policeman you will not allow criminals, they're going scot-free and there's only one way of doing that, arrest them and bring them to court," he said.

"You will bring evidence to convince the prosecution. Those are the things that primarily will be the metrics of performance of individual policemen," he added.

The newly appointed PNP chief also assures the public that the Internal Affairs Service of the institution will be active in looking at the complaints against every cop while directing its legal service to also provide appropriate legal assistance and lawyers to defend the police in case they will face cases as a result of doing their job. Robina Asido/DMS