MANILA, Philippines — The lone senior police official who refused to submit a courtesy resignation will not face any sanctions but will have to explain the failure to comply with the government's request and could still be investigated for links to the illegal drug trade.
The deadline to file the courtesy resignations that Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. appealed to police colonels and generals to file was on January 31.
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Those who filed theirs have agreed to undergo a review by a five-member panel that will check them for links to the drug trade and have them resign from their posts if the advisory group recommends it and if the National Police Commission that will review the recommendations agrees.
"According to him, that's his personal prerogative," Police Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., Philippine National Police chief, said at a Palace briefing. He said that the police will respect the unnamed police official's decision, "but, of course, we will find out why he refused."
"We will really find out," he said in Filipino, adding there would be no sanctions for the refusal to file.
"We are not ordering or commanding anyone. It was just an appeal," he said.
Abalos declined to name the official but said that it does not mean he will be able to skirt the PNP's review of its officials. "Even without this call for resignation of the generals and colonels, there will always be continuous monitoring about drugs," he said.
Of the 955 police colonels and generals who were asked to file their courtesy resignation, 12 did not submit theirs. However, Abalos said, five of them had already retired before the deadline and six were counting the days to retirement.
Mystery member of advisory group
Abalos said that aside from Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, whose inclusion in the panel had previously been announced, Azurin, lawyer and mining executive Gilbert Teodoro, retired Maj. Gen. Isagani Neres of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Military Affairs will be in the advisory group.
Another person, who Abalos said refused to be named, is the fifth member of the advisory group.
"This is just an advisory group. They've got no salary. Nothing at all. No allowance, nothing," he also said.
Azurin, who was among the first to file a courtesy resignation and who had repeatedly assured the public and the police that he would also undergo a review, has already been screened, Abalos said.
"It is only but proper," Abalos said of the national police chief's inclusion in the advisory group. He said Azurin, who will chair the group, would be able to steer the committee and provide input and information from recent intelligence reports.
Abalos stressed that the group will be "apolitical through the screening process and penalize only those who are guilty and involved in the illegal drugs trade."
Guilt is determined by the courts or, in the case of administrative cases, by bodies like the Napolcom. — Jonathan de Santos