PNP sets lifestyle check on erring cops

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) Internal Affairs Service (IAS) will conduct a lifestyle investigation on police officers with reported involvement in illegal activities.

IAS Inspector General Alfegar Triambulo said yesterday that the agency has a complete operation plan to launch a lifestyle check on suspected scalawags within the police force.

The IAS has coordinated with other government agencies such as the Office of the Ombudsman, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Land Registration Authority to assist investigators, Triambulo told radio station dzMM.

Triambulo did not give a figure on the number of rogue police officers but added they already have specific targets.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde earlier said they are monitoring around 1,000 cops who are involved in the illegal drug trade.

Triambulo said the lifestyle probe will cover the police officers’ activities in their present and previous assignments as well as their spouses and relatives.

Triambulo said they have already dismissed more than 600 police officers for various offenses since he became head of IAS in 2016.

His office receives around 2,000 complaints a year.

Despite these accomplishments, he lamented that there are still people within the PNP who are involved in nefarious activities.

“Our approach now is holistic. We have preventive, punitive and restorative, especially those who could still be rehabilitated,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has sought an “in-depth cleansing” of the PNP following the attempted killing of one of the labor group’s leaders in Cebu City last week. 

In a statement, TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said there is a growing concern over the failed “police assassination” attempt on TUCP vice president and barangay councilor Jessielou Cadungog Tejero of Cebu City last Monday.

The gunman and his accomplice were both policemen.

Mendoza also condemned police brutality as shown in the dispersal of protesting workers of NurtiAsia, a food condiments factory in Marilao, Bulacan recently.

“Who will protect us against lawlessness and breakdown of the rule of law now that the police themselves, who are supposed to protect the people, are the ones who are killing and hurting us? Who will protect us now that the police themselves are kidnapping us? Where do the weak and powerless go and seek for protection?” he claimed. 

Mendoza added the PNP hierarchy should eliminate its erring members so it could regain the trust of the public. – With Sheila Crisostomo