‘7 jueteng cops to get plum posts’

Seven senior police chiefs who were recently sacked for their alleged failure to curb illegal gambling will eventually be given new assignments after all.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said the seven would be "considered in the reorganization" of the force.

"They will be given functional positions in the PNP and not merely ornamental ones," Ebdane said Thursday at a press conference at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Quezon City. He did not elaborate.

The National Police Commission, which oversees the PNP, ordered the relief of the seven police officials on June 25 after the Department of the Interior and Local Government found that jueteng continued to proliferate in their respective jurisdictions.

Those sacked were Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay, Director Avelino Razon, Chief Superintendents Reynaldo Berroya, Nicolas Pasinos and Domingo Reyes and Senior Superintendents Leonilo de la Cruz and Jose Salvacion.

Aglipay was the Metro Manila police chief and Pasinos was the chief of the Western Police District in Manila.

Berroya, Razon and Reyes were the regional commanders in Central Luzon, Central Visayas and Southern Tagalog, respectively.

Dela Cruz and Salvacion were the provincial commanders in Laguna and Cebu, respectively.

All seven denied that they had been remiss in their duty.

Fearing that they might not be reassigned and put on "floating status," Berroya, De la Cruz, Pasinos and Reyes wrote a joint letter to President Arroyo last month asking her for a chance to clear their names.

They said their relief violated their "constitutional right to due process." Unless their names are cleared, the four officials said, the public "will continue to hold the perception that we are undesirable police officers."

"Our names and reputation and that of our families, which we hold more dearly than our lives, will be forever tainted most unfairly," they said in their letter.

They said they earlier understood that the President had "recognized the implications of our being relieved and gave instructions that we be transferred instead to other positions corresponding to our ranks."

"We learned, however, that this may not be implemented and we may be placed on floating status," their letter stated. They did not elaborate.

Jueteng led to the downfall of Mrs. Arroyo’s predecessor President Joseph Estrada, who was was toppled in a military-backed popular protest in January 2001 due largely to allegations that he received bribes from illegal gambling operators when he was president.

The sacking of the seven stunned the public since some of them had played key roles in the uprising that ousted Estrada and installed then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in his place.

The country has suffered from an image of being unsafe to tourists and investors due to a rash of kidnapping-for-ransom cases and drug-related crimes.

Mrs. Arroyo earlier explained that the seven officials’ relief was in line with her administration’s new policy of "command responsibility" in an attempt to instill police discipline and curb the country’s crime problem.

In many instances, the police are perceived as being protectors of crime gangs.

Mrs. Arroyo gave PNP chief Ebdane one year to rein in the rash of kidnappings-for-ransom in the country.

In her June 22 State of the Nation Address, Mrs. Arroyo branded terrorists and criminals as "enemies of the State" that were threatening national security and economic recovery.

In her speech, Mrs. Arroyo vowed to build a "strong republic by breaking the back of terrorism and criminality."