Cops with kin running in 2022 to be transferred

MANILA, Philippines — Police officers whose family members will be running in next year’s elections will be reassigned to other areas to prevent them from engaging in partisan politics, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar announced yesterday.

Eleazar said police personnel with relatives gunning for elective posts in their areas of responsibility would be accounted for.

“As part of our commitment to bar PNP members from engaing in politics, I have instructed all chiefs of police to start the accounting of their personnel whose relatives have filed certificates of candidacy (COC) in the May elections,” he said.

“We will reassign them outside the cities, municipalities and provinces where their relatives would seek elective posts,” Eleazar added.

He said the PNP would be holding officers defying this order accountable.

Eleazar cited previous instances in which the PNP received complaints about police personnel who actively campaigned for their relatives and intervened on their behalf.

While some of the allegations were found to be false, Eleazar said the PNP wants to discourage perceptions that its members are engaging in partisan politics, especially at the local level.

“The PNP will remain apolitical,” he said.

The PNP said the filing of COCs nationwide has remained peaceful and orderly.

Police will remain vigilant in securing the election process until the last day of COC filing on Oct. 8, according to Eleazar.