The Philippine National Police has dismissed at least 90 policemen in the past two months as part of its aggressive internal cleansing program.
Police Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP officer-in-charge, said the dismissal spree continues as there has been an inflow of recommendations for the punishment of erring cops.
“We are averaging two policemen being dismissed every day. And this is continuing,” said Gamboa.
More than 3,000 policemen have been dismissed from the service since July 2016. The figure includes a total of 448 policemen who were kicked out of the service due to involvement in illegal drugs.
Among those sacked by Gamboa were the four of the 13 cops involved in the Pampanga drug raid. They were dismissed due to another case of robbery-exortion in Antipolo City.
He also ordered the dismissal of three police majors who were caught extorting P5 million from the bidders of body cameras.
“Last night (Friday), I signed a charge sheet recommending for the punishment of police colonels because they might say that we are only running after the low ranking police officers, so there is no exempted here,” said Gamboa.
With the continuing internal cleansing, Gamboa is confident that the PNP would regain the trust and confidence of the public which he said was lost due to the Pampanga drug recycling scandal.
“When I assumed office last Oct. 14, it was a difficult time for the PNP and I admit that we were really affected, and that’s why I had a very great challenge ahead of me on how to regain the public trust to the PNP,” said Gamboa.
Gamboa was appointed as PNP officer-in-charge after his “mistah” (classmate), Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, was forced to resign due to the Pampanga drug raid scandal. (Aaron Recuenco)
