National Police Commission (Napolcom) Vice Chairman and Executive Officer Vitaliano Aguirre II wants to strip mayors and governors of the authority to choose police chiefs in a bid to insulate the Philippine National Police (PNP) from politics.
Aguirre said that the current system wherein mayors and governors are given a shortlist of police officials to choose who would be the chief of police, city director or provincial director in their areas is a form of political pressure to the police.
“This is one of the political pressures that politicians exert on the PNP. This practice is not good for the PNP because this would turn police officials to sycophants,” said Aguirre.
The PNP has long been calling to scrap the policy of letting mayors and governors choose their police chiefs, saying it is prone to corruption and also compromise public service since the local police force may end up being private armies of sitting mayors or governors.
Based on the policy, the PNP would submit three names of police officials as nominees for the posts.
But the submission of the names are also tainted with corruption since aspiring police officials would sometimes look for backers from influential groups or personalities since the mayor or governor would already assure them of being chosen if their names would be included in the shortlist.
During the Maguindanao massacre for instance in 2009, police officials and their men were among those charged and convicted after they got involved in the planning and execution of the plan to liquidate the Mangudadatus who were then out to challenge the Ampatuans for the leadership of Maguindanao.
“Maybe this is where we could start, let us remove this practice,” said Aguirre. (Aaron Recuenco)
