By AARON B. RECUENCO
Director Oscar Albayalde, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), has ordered the relief of a precinct commander in Pasay City and his 35 men over allegations of robbery.
His order, according to Albayalde, was based on the information he received that some policemen in Police Community Precinct 3 of Pasay City took and shared among them an entire amount of recovered money from a suspected thief they arrested last week.
“There was this complaint about money being recovered by some policemen there in an operation. And we are looking into the allegation that they did not return it to the owner and divided it among them,” said Albayalde.
“So I ordered the relief of the 35 policemen assigned in the area, plus the PCP commander,” he added.
The official did not disclose details of how the offense was committed by the policemen but said it is currently under investigation.
It was recalled that it was also Albayalde who ordered the sacking of the entire police force of Caloocan City over a robbery incident committed by some Caloocan cops under the guise of a legitimate police operation.
The robbery, which was caught on a CCTV, served as the last straw as the Caloocan cops were also linked to three controversial cases involving death of two minors and a 19-year old boy.
Albayalde said all the cops will be assigned to the NCRPO holding unit and will be subjected to retraining.
The official said the NCRPO action is a proof that they do not tolerate wrongdoings within their ranks and that internal cleansing is continuous.
“This is good in order to cleanse our ranks with misfits,” said Albayalde.
More than 200 policemen have already been dismissed from the service since last year, most of them over involvement in drugs cases. More than 60 policmen, on the other hand, have already been arrested since the Philippine National intensified its anti-scalawag operations nationwide.