MANILA, Philippines (Updated 7:22 p.m.) — The courtesy resignations and the review by a yet to be formed panel will help future leaders of the Philippine National Police have a clean slate, Police Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., PNP chief, said Monday.
He said submitting to the review could mean that police officials not involved in the illegal drug trade would no longer operate under a cloud of doubt that some of them "have been suffering since 2016, actually."
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Holding police officers with drug ties accountable was part of the "war on drugs" of the previous administration, with then-President Rodrigo Duterte himself accusing active and former police officials of drug ties in a speech in 2016. Through the years, several police officials have been charged with drug-related offenses although notably, convictions were lacking amid a high death toll of the controversial anti-narcotics campaign.
Azurin said that despite efforts to clean up its ranks, some officers suspected of drug links might not have been "processed" in internal reviews. "So there's also a doubt if these officers have really been adjudicated...that is why, [this time] if you are cleared by the five-man committee, there will no longer be any questions on why you were cleared," he said in Filipino.
He said that close to 600 police generals and colonels of more than 900 have already submitted their courtesy resignations, which he said was a "test of individual character" that would benefit the police force. He added that the resignations are a parallel effort to ongoing investigations into police officials suspected of drug links.
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Fairness and professionalism expected from review panel
Although the panel that will review officials' records has yet to be constituted, Azurin said he is confident that he and other PNP commanders will demand fairness and professionalism from the body.
"We are talking here of the careers of senior officers of the PNP who worked very hard the last 30 years or more of their service. That's why they also need a fair, balanced as well — there should be no politics here and no room for grudges," he said, partly in Filipino.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos is quoted in a CNN Philippines report as saying the recommendations by the five-member panel will also be reviewed by the National Police Commission. The three-month review process is seen to start after January 31, the deadline for officers to file their courtesy resignations.
The move has generally been praised by Congress, which has oversight powers on how the PNP does its job although Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III has called the call for courtesy resignations "out of place", unjustified and unneccessary. ONE News also quoted Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. (Negros Oriental) warning against "[dragging] the whole organization in the fault of only one or two scalawags."
Pimentel and Teves said it would be better to file complaints against the police officers, a process that Abalos has called tedious in justifying the "shortcut" of having top police officials subject themselves to the panel review.
Although Azurin said there were "less than five" police officials suspected of drug ties, Abalos is quoted in a CNN Philippines report as saying around 3% to 4% of the more than 900 police colonels and generals are linked to the illegal drug trade according to intelligence reports that still need to be vetted "very, very well."
Of the over 900 full colonels and generals of the Philippine National Police (PNP), 3% to 4% allegedly have direct links to illegal drug trade, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Monday.
'If you are innocent, you have nothing to fear'
According to a 1992 memorandum circular of the Civil Service Commission, Career Executive Service Officers are considered permanent state employees with securiry of tenure and "shall not be required to tender courtesy resignations to any new administration in the executive department or any agency of government."
A more recent MC, issued in 2016, said that career officials include:
- Those in the Career Executive Service
- Career officers outside the CES who are appointed by the president under specific laws like the Foreign Service Act
- And those otherwise appointed by the president "whose employment are characterized by entrance based omn merit and fitness to be determined...by competitive examination or based on highly technical qualifications; [have an] opportunity for advancement to higher career positions; and security of tenure."
In a statement on Monday, the CSC said that the police officials are presidential appointees and "their appointments to the government service are not attested to by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), and thereby outside the purview of the CSC and its disciplinary jurisdiction."
Azurin stressed Monday that if the officials are innocent "then why don't they come up and join the call of [Abalos] and then our president also supports this courtesy resignation."
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the Civil Service Commission's comment that the PNP officials are "outside the purview of the CSC and its disciplinary jurisdiction."