Eleazar: No graft in procurement of body cameras

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police’s procurement of 2,696 body cameras was aboveboard and properly accounted for, PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said yesterday in response to allegations of corruption by Sen. Manny Pacquiao.

Eleazar said they are coordinating with Pacquiao’s office to verify whether the senator mentioned the PNP in his list of government agencies reportedly involved in corruption.

“I assure our countrymen that no funds were stolen in this transaction. The funding allocated by Congress for the purchase of body cameras was fully accounted for,” Eleazar said. “If indeed Senator Pacquiao said that there was corruption in the procurement of body cameras, we would appreciate if he could provide us the details and I assure him that we would look into it.”

In the list published by Facebook page TagapagMulat, Pacquiao allegedly implicated several government agencies in corruption.

Pacquiao had identified in his list of corrupt agencies the Departments of Health, Social Welfare and Development, Energy as well as Environment and Natural Resources.

The camp of Pacquiao has yet to confirm whether he issued a statement accusing the PNP of irregularity in the procurement of P289 million worth of body cameras.

Eleazar said the PNP was able to save P45.1 million allocated for the purchase of body cameras, and combined it with P19.4 million in savings from the recent improvement of its command center to procure a closed-circuit television (CCTV) rapid deployment system for around P60 million.

He said the deployment system would be used in counterterrorism operations. It is equipped with CCTVs with artificial intelligence video management system, 10 CCTV mobile trailers and 10 generators.

The PNP expects the delivery of the equipment this month.

The procurement of body cameras was prompted by the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos during an anti-narcotics operation in Caloocan in 2017.

After four years of delays, the PNP rolled out this year the use of body cameras during police operations, for transparency.