Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday admitted that the latest survey showing more Filipinos believe there are still “ninja cops” is the “aftermath” of last year’s Senate investigation where the former Philippine National Police ( PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde was the focus of the probe.

“That is the result or the aftermath of the Senate investigation. Of course that is the perception of the public because (the issue was) very fresh but if you will recall it happened actually 2013 so that's about six years ago,” Año said in an interview at Camp Crame.

According to the latest Social Weather Stations ( SWS) survey, they found that 78 percent of Filipino adults believe the accusation there are “ninja cops” among the PNP while seven percent do not believe and 15 percent are undecided.

Año said the PNP’s concern now is on how they will change the public’s perception.

“As far as the PNP organization is concerned, we will make sure the public’s perception will change by actions, by deeds,” he said.

“In our campaign to get rid of scalawags and cleanse the PNP rest assured all ninja cops, we will remove them in the service and we will prosecute them,” he said.

Año said they have a watchlist of cops involved in illegal drug activities which will be neutralized.

Meanwhile, on the 50 percent of Filipinos who believe the accusation that Albayalde is a protector of “ninja cops”, Año said it may change as soon as the Department of Justice release the result of their investigation.

“Well there is an ongoing criminal investigation by the DOJ... the perception might change depending on the result of the investigation,” he said.

This controversy led Albayalde to relinquish from his post earlier from his retirement date.

Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson, said they cannot deny there are really “ninja cops” among their ranks.

Based on their data, they are monitoring 22 cops who are allegedly involved in illegal drugs.

“We cannot prevent the public to think that way and we cannot deny that there are some cops who became scalawags and got involved in illegal activities,” Banac said.

“But we assured the public that we are not tolerating this and we continue on our internal cleansing to remove these people who commits illegal activities so that we can return the trust of the public,” he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS