By Martin A. Sadongdong
Heads will roll as the Philippine National Police yesterday vowed to intensify its internal cleansing program against policemen who have committed major and minor offenses.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said that under his leadership, cops involved in illegal drugs, extortion, and other major offenses will be punished.
Also to be punished are cops who are not wearing helmets when conducting motorcycle patrol operations, investigators who are “too lazy” to assist complainants, those who don’t clean their police station offices, and others who have committed minor offenses.
“These are the little things that we want the counter intelligence operatives to report to us. Just recently, we have received complaints about investigators who cannot even give a blotter copy of a spot report to a complainant. There are those who complain that investigators cannot respond to crime scene because they have no gas. Can you believe that?” Albayalde said.
“These are the things that we want to be changed. These are the things that we want to improve on. If there is one complainant that will report to us cops who refused to respond to their reports because they have no gas, the investigator is not around, the chief of police is not around, believe me I will relieve them and we will investigate them. The minimum punishment is suspension and we promise you that if they do not change as early as now,” he said.
Albayalde said that public service must be swift, adding that when he was a cop on the ground during the early days of his service, they used their own cars to respond to reports.
He said he has instructed the PNP Internal Affairs Service to expedite the review of pending cases of rogue cops who are still included in their monitoring. Albayalde has yet to determine the number of cops who are being monitored by the PNP-IAS.
Prior to his designation as chief of the PNP, Albayalde made headlines when he conducted surprise inspections as director of the National Capital Region Police Office. It resulted into the discovery of cops who are drinking liquor and sleeping and not wearing proper unifrom while on duty.
He said that spot inspections helped him realize the problems the PNP is facing on the ground. Despite this, others saw this as mere rhetoric as Albayalde did it months before then PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa’s retirement.
Albayalde said that when he was the regional director of the NCRPO, he dismissed 297 policemen, almost equalling the more than 300 dismissed by Dela Rosa during his 21 months as chief PNP. He added that he also suspended 825 cops before he left NCRPO, demoted 99, and transferred hundreds others outside Manila, including 365 in Mindanao.