EDITORIAL - Unanswered questions

Retired police Director Eliseo de la Paz finally returned to Manila yesterday and told the press he had nothing to hide. De la Paz, a former police comptroller, was apprehended by Russian authorities in Moscow for failing to declare 103,000 euros in his possession. The money was the contingency fund of the Philippine National Police delegation to the 77th International Police Assembly in St. Petersburg, according to PNP and interior department officials. De la Paz, on the other hand, said it was a cash advance. He said that while he had done nothing illegal, he was apologizing for the whole mess.

The legality will still have to be determined particularly by government auditors. The first thing De la Paz must explain is why a retired police officer was representing the PNP in an international conference, and why he was holding the delegation’s contingency fund. The next question is whether PNP officials are entitled to a contingency fund, with the equivalent of P6.9 million left over at the end of the trip. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief, said police officers are not given contingency funding, and there is no budget appropriation this year for such a fund except for the Office of the President.

Another question is what the wife of the PNP chief was doing in the delegation. The officers who brought their wives with them, De la Paz included, may be able to explain the presence of the women, although they will also have to reassure the public that the spouses’ junket was not bankrolled as well by taxpayers. But who was the wife of PNP chief Jesus Versoza accompanying? An Interpol assembly is not like a wedding or baptism where a wife can stand in for her husband.

It was embarrassing enough that Philippine police officers were caught lugging around 103,000 euros in cash in the age of credit cards, ATMs and international bank transfers. De la Paz — and the PNP, which approved his trip — left many questions unanswered.