MANILA, Philippines – Fifty three active police officers have been named as “ninja cops” or those involved in the recycling of seized illegal drugs, the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s (PDEA) disclosed on Thursday.

PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said the list of “ninja cops” was based on the consolidated information from the agency, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, a former chief of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

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“Pinagsama-sama ito, initially we came up with a list of ninja cops, lumabas doon more or less, mga 50, to be exact 53 yata ‘yung existing ngayon na ninja cops na nai-involve sa recycling (This is consolidated. We initially came up with a list of ninja cops, we found out that more or less, about 50, to be exact, 53 are existing ninja cops who are involved in recycling),” Aquino said in an interview on dzMM.

Aquino explained that from the initial list of 87 ninja cops, only 22 are active police officers, according to PNP data.

The PNP earlier said five of the 22 ninja cops are assigned in the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

READ: 5 of 22 ‘ninja cops’ are in Metro Manila, says Eleazar

Aquino said Magalong personally furnished him his list of erring police officers.

Senator Richard Gordon said Magalong revealed in a Senate executive session that about a dozen mostly active police officers are linked to the illegal drugs trade.

READ: Gordon: A dozen of police officials linked to illegal drug trade

Adding its own list of names with that from the PNP and Magalong, the PDEA chief was able to come up with the 53 names.

He, however, noted that the number could still increase as the agency still has additional information that could implicate more police officers.

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“I know mas lalaki pa yun kasi mayroon pa kaming information na hindi nakasama doon sa 53 na yun (I know the number will still increase because we have information that is not yet included in the list of 53 ninja cops),” he said.

Aquino said President Rodrigo Duterte is already aware of the PDEA list. /gsg

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