By Aaron Recuenco
A number of policemen who have been trolling the then National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director and now the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Director General Oscar Albayalde, is facing administrative charges for attacking him on a Facebook page of policemen.
“They are all policemen. We have already identified them and I have already instructed the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) to come up with an order for them to meet me on Monday,” said Albayalde.
The official said he was aware of the curses and harsh criticisms he had received even before on a Facebook page Buhay Lespu.
The personal attacks against Albayalde started when he began sacking policemen in Metro Manila whom he would caught sleeping inside the police stations as part of his regular night inspections of all precincts and police stations in Metro Manila.
The criticisms range from disrespecting Albayalde to curses directly at the then NCRPO chief.
While he has no problem with legitimate airing of grievances done in a respectful way, Albayalde said those policemen who trolled him clearly stepped out of the line when they began cursing at him and accusing him of grandstanding.
“Remember we are in uniformed service. There are some things that we should not be saying in front of the media against someone because we have norms, we have policies and rules regulations have to be followed,” said Albayalde.
The official insisted that as a commander, there is nothing wrong with castigating and relieving policemen who are sleeping on their posts since this is part of the disciplinary power of a commander.
He explained that as a public servant, policemen should be sensitive on what the people would say especially that the PNP is among the recipient of a big salary increase which was implemented last January.
“As I have been saying, if they cannot follow the rules, they are always free to go out,” said Albayalde.
“But it is not right to stab your commander at the back. We have grievance mechanism and they can always go to their immediate commander to express their grievances, but not in the social media,” he added.
DISMISSAL
Albayalde said an administrative case of insubordination and other possible charges would be slapped against the troll-policemen whom they have already identified.
“If we prove that they were the one who wrote those nasty comments, then we will file insubordination against them,” said Albayalde.
“They can be dismissed from the service. We do not want these kind of policemen in our ranks,” he stressed.
He said that those cops appear to have become comfortable on status quo that they have resisting change.
