The 65 police officers who were relieved from the Davao City Police Station for allegedly tampering with crime statistics have been re-assigned to at least four regions in the country, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Thursday, Nov. 28.
But PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo was quick to clarify that there is no politics behind the re-assignment of 32 Police Commissioned Officers (PCOs) and 33 Police Non-Commissioned Officers (PNCOs) from Davao City.
“We just want to clarify that there is no politics on this because there were claims that this (reassignment) has something to do with the political bickering. The reassignment underwent the normal process and those re-assigned involved the officers during the time of Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre as director of the Police Regional Office 11,” said Fajardo.
“They were relieved and facing investigation for maintaining double blotter. It is normal for police officers under investigation to be relieved so as not to influence the conduct of the investigation,” she added.
Of the policemen re-assigned, 24 of them were assigned to Mimaropa (Mindoro Oriental and Occidental Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), 21 to the Cordillera Administrative Region, 12 to Bicol Region and eight to Cagayan Valley Region.
The highest rank are Police Majors who were relieved as station commanders in all police stations in Davao City.
The relief stemmed from the discovery of Torre of the tampering of crime statistics through a double blotter which the official said is illegal.
Torre, now the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the tampering of the crime statistics made it impossible for PNP strategists to properly analyze the crime situation in Davao City.
The re-assignment came amid speculations of the Marcos administration getting back at Vice President Sara Duterte, who used to be the mayor of Davao City, over her attacks and alleged threat against the President, the First Lady and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Aside from the re-assignment orders, the PNP also recalled all the police security of the Vice President and replaced them with 24 new cops.
But Fajardo rejected such speculations: “There is no politics here. It just so happened that this (re-assignment) was only implemented now.” (Aaron Recuenco)
