Philippine National Police Director General Ronald de la Rosa must adopt as his birthday wish to himself the firm resolve to rid the PNP of scalawags like the ones who choked to death inside Camp Crame the Pampanga-based Korean trader they had abducted earlier.

De la Rosa turned 55 yesterday, “leaving him with exactly one more year before he retires to do some serious house cleaning,” Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said today.

“That should be his battle plan for the next 365 days. To leave behind a PNP purged of the crooks who give the whole organization a bad name,” Recto said.

Recto said if de la Rosa manages to stay in office despite mounting calls from influential personalities that he resigns, “then he should dedicate his every waking hour thereafter to disprove his critics and to show that he deserves his continued stay in his post.”

Recto said he was not joining calls for de la Rosa to quit or be fired.

”But if you are not ordered to resign from PNP, then reform the PNP,” was Recto’s message to the national police chief.

“Start with acknowledging that problems do exist. Then follow it up with an action plan on how to solved them. Don’t answer with excuses or alibis. This is not the time to be a denial king,” Recto said.

“But considering the gravity of the problem, any plan can only be a radical one. The people would immediately know if you’re applying a band-aid solution,” Recto said.

“Heads must roll. Consider a major reshuffle, too. Ignore the political patrons of officers. Your motto should be: “Bato bato sa langit, ang matanggal huwag magalit,” the minority leader said.

Recto added that the controversies the PNP is embroiled in point to the fact that the “problems are not PR in nature, but institutional.”

“The bad press you’re getting is due to bad cops. Thus, it can’t be solved by diversionary tactics but by taking out deeply-rooted reasons,” Recto said.

“This can be done together with modernizing the equipment of the PNP. By providing it with more logistics to improve police mobility, visibility and response time,” he said.

The national police should also exert the same efforts in running after drug addicts to other crimes as well, like robbery, Recto said.