Aquino defends Purisima anew

NEW YORK – President Aquino defended anew Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima, whose declared assets were found to be questionable by the Civil Service Commission.

“I have known Alan as a guy who is not capricious,” Aquino told reporters in a sit-down interview at the Omni Berkshire Hotel here, where he was billeted for his stay when he attended the UN General Assembly and the Climate Change Summit at UN headquarters.

Earlier this month, Aquino had turned down calls for him to fire Purisima – who served as a member of the Presidential Security Group during the time of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino – in light of the resurgence of crimes, some of which were done in broad daylight.

Aquino questioned the timing of the calls for Purisima to resign.

He said the issues hurled against Purisima are nothing new.

“There had been scalawags in the police force even before,” Aquino said, adding that firing Purisima will not change the situation.

He said the PNP has changed for the better under the leadership of Purisima, which was not limited to firearms upgrade, but to a culture of solving crimes.

The present PNP culture, as adopted by Secretary Manuel Roxas II of the Department of the Interior and Local Government that has jurisdiction over the police force, is to carry out scientific investigation based on data and statistics.