MANILA - In just a year and 4 months since its founding, the Philippine National Police Counter Intelligence Task Force (PNP CITF) has charged 194 police officers, 74 of whom were arrested in various operations.

Outgoing CITF commander S/Supt Jose Chiquito Malayo says since the Counter Intelligence Task Force was formed, they were able to arrest 386 people, 194 of which were police personnel. @ABSCBNNews @ANCALERTS pic.twitter.com/JyS5AYDKik

— Maan Macapagal (@maan_macapagal) June 5, 2018

In change of command ceremonies on Tuesday, outgoing CITF commander Senior Supt. Jose Chiquito Malayo said the officers were arrested in anti-police scalawag operations.

Some 82 officers were charged under regular filing, or those with pending complaints, while 38 were charged with administrative cases.

Among the 74, 3 were officials and 71 were non-commissioned officers or with ranks from Police Officer 1 to Senior Police Officer 4. Malayo said the highest ranking official arrested was a chief inspector.

“It’s not easy to head this unit. The mandate and functions are not easy since we are running after PNP personnel who are trained like how we are trained, that are equipped how we are equipped. Thinking even better than the criminals,” Malayo said.

Malayo also said it was emotionally difficult to arrest fellow police officers.

“Nasasaktan din kami dahil sila ay kapwa namin pulis,” he said.

(We, too, are hurt because they are police officers like us.)

“Normally, dahil mas maraming non-officers kaya maraming nahuhuli, but if you look at the officers, wala po tayong ini-exclude na mga officers basta mayroon tayong ebidensiya,” he added.

(Normally, because there are more non-officers, a lot of them were arrested, but if you look at the officers, we did not exclude anyone as long as we have evidence [against them].)

Malayo said it was more difficult to arrest scalawags who are in top positions.

“CITF will be doing its job in accordance with the evidence that will be on hand. We have to accept na 'yung nasa itaas, it takes time para makuha natin ang evidence against them. But tuloy-tuloy po, may mga efforts tayo diyan. May mga pending projects tayo,” Malayo said.

(CITF will be doing its job in accordance with the evidence that will be on hand. We have to accept that those in top positions, it takes time to gather evidence against them. But our efforts continue, we have pending projects for that.)

Malayo said there was a significant drop in the number of complaints the CITF has received, but this could be because rogue cops may either be taking a break for the moment or are being extra careful in their transactions.

“First months natin umabot tayo sa 400 plus na complaints against PNP. Pero nag-downtrend ito in the succeeding months. For now, minimum na ang mga reports na natatanggap natin. I’m not saying wala na sila, they are just there but stopped doing these criminal activities for the moment because of the presence of the CITF,” Malayo said.

(In the first months, we received more than 400 complaints against PNP. There was a downtrend in the succeeding months. For now, we are receiving minimum reports. I'm not saying that they're gone. They are there but stopped doing these criminal activities for the moment because of the presence of the CITF.)