MANILA (AFP) - United States' diplomats thought Philippine police to be as corrupt as Chicago cops in the Al Capone era who tortured, extorted and even murdered suspected criminals, according to a leaked embassy cable.
The 2005 cable, sent apparently by the then number two at the US embassy in Manila, outlined in colourful language what it said was 'endemic' corruption within the 117,000-member Philippine police force.
'Mission observers compare the PNP (Philippine National Police) to police forces in Al Capone's Chicago, or 1940s 'LA Confidential' Los Angeles,' said the cable published by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
'Apart from corruption, many cops undertake investigative short cuts that often employ physical abuse, the planting of evidence, and sometimes - allegedly under guidance from local elected officials - the extra-judicial killing of criminal suspects.'
