COMING from no les than the Director-General of the Philippine National Police, it was candid enough alright.

In tagging the New People’s Army (NPA) as being involved in the production and trafficking of illegal drugs and the Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) as being into the distribution of shabu in the countryside, PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa made no bones about also admitting that some of his personnel may be “involved directly or indirectly in trafficking of illegal drugs.”

That’s putting it properly, fair and square.

It would have been hypocritical of Verzosa who, like his predecessors to the top post, vowed to reform the image of the police, to pass the blame to the rebels and the militant separatists while not acknowledging that, possibly, some rogue cops – officers included – also dip into the drugs operations and of course, profit by it.

Verzosa had claimed in a report published last Friday in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the illegal drugs trade plays a large part in funding the armed depradations of the communist rebels and the Islamist militants in the country.

Verzosa quaintly describes this as “narco-terrorism.”

Now, where some rowdy ones among his uniformed boys are involved in drugs, would that be, uh, “narco-police livelihood?” Call it whatever you liker.

And if so, especially with the discovery of shabu laboratories in the countryside of late where both local politicians and cops are being linked in some “protection” stuff or the other, what’s being done about the uniformed suspects?

We can only hope the PNP Chief can imbue the campaign against drug trade dealers, runners and users with the same –if not more so – determination and zeal as he would his avowed program to weed out the cohorts of drug dealers among his men.

That’s one sure way indeed of restoring public confidence and trust in the police organization.