PNP officials seek public bidding for next K-9 units

Apparently miffed over the lousy performance of their bomb-sniffing dogs, police officials have urged the top brass of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to make a public bidding for a better batch of K-9 units.

A ranking PNP official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The STAR that a public bidding should also be made transparent.

"To avoid the controversy on who gets the contract and how much (allegedly) goes into the pockets of those who facilitate the procurement of these K-9 members, it should undergo public bidding," the source said.

An official from the PNP Finance Service also revealed that supplies covering the so-called "continuous use of services" involving millions of pesos should also undergo public bidding.

He added "over the counter services" are not subjected to any bidding.

In the case of acquiring K-9 units, the police officer explained to The STAR, the "continuous use of services" is the proper training of the bomb-sniffing dogs by qualified trainers.

Other ranking officials also expressed their disappointment with the present supplier of police dogs.

Aside from being overpriced, they were also poorly trained for police work, they said.

"The purchase of these dogs has been so much of an issue because of anomalies that come with it," one police official quipped.

The STAR gathered the majority of the bomb-sniffing dogs now utilized by the PNP maritime and aviation security groups were supplied by Steve Hidosan.

Hidosan reportedly cornered most of the contracts to supply police dogs to law enforcement agencies during the administration of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

PNP sources said the training and management of the procured Belgian Malinois dogs should be shouldered by the supplier, in this case, Hidosan.

"He (Hidosan) supplied the dogs to the (PNP) Aviation Security Group. He’s been duping everybody to make us believe that he had the best canines," one official said.– With Jess Diaz