PNP purge

Is it a call for courtesy resignations as part of a purge, an early retirement program or a loyalty check?

This question has been raised after the Philippine National Police leadership said those among its 900-plus generals and colonels whose courtesy resignations are accepted will still receive their full retirement benefits… provided they don’t face administrative or criminal charges.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, who called for the courtesy resignations, has said it is meant to cleanse the PNP of top-tier scalawags involved in the illegal drug trade. But why limit it to drug offenses? Cops have been implicated in a slew of other criminal activities.

President Marcos, in supporting Abalos’ call, said “this is it” – meaning this is part of his administration’s different approach to the drug menace.

PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, who led by example in being the first to submit his courtesy resignation, said fewer than 10 ranking police officers have been linked to drug deals and could therefore see their courtesy resignations accepted.

The move is reminiscent of a similar one undertaken during the presidency of Fidel Ramos when Rafael Alunan was the secretary of the interior.

Senior PNP officers might still remember that move, which led to a dramatic purge in the police ranks.

Alunan recalled that the PNP cleansing was a priority of Ramos, who served as chief of the Integrated National Police when it was still part of the Philippine Constabulary. The PC-INP was under military command, allowing the court-martial of erring members and the swift weeding out of rotten eggs.

This speedy cleansing was no longer possible when the PC was abolished and the INP was transformed into the PNP, a civilian organization under the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

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Alunan, who faced “The Chiefs” on One News last Friday, recalled that shortly upon assuming the presidency, Ramos wanted to strengthen the criminal justice system, through reforms in all its four pillars: the police, prosecution, courts and penology.

In the case of the police, Alunan said among the reforms was the recall of cops whose assignments made them part of politicians’ private armies. A crackdown on loose firearms – including those held by cops – was also launched.

Alunan said Ramos called a closed-door command conference with PNP officers and told them he intended to rid the organization of scalawags. FVR outlined an early retirement program and said the officers could choose to avail themselves of it, with their retirement benefits intact, or be forced out if warranted, based on documented background checks and assessment to be conducted on each officer by a committee chaired by Alunan.

A 1993 report filed by a private consultancy firm on the PNP reforms noted that the police at the time had come under “intense criticism” for the involvement of its members in “kidnapping-for-ransom, rape and murder, bank robberies, illegal gambling, smuggling, drug trafficking and graft and corruption.”

The report said FVR then formed a nine-member committee to recommend action on the PNP revamp. Of 239 senior officers affected by the program, 194 opted for voluntary retirement, of whom 63 were recommended by the committee to be retired. Alunan said administrative and criminal charges for various offenses were also filed against some of the officials.

Five criteria were used by the committee in deciding which officers should be retired or retained. According to the report, these were “consistency, educational and training backgrounds, awards, decorations and commendations since 1980; leadership and management integrity; loyalty to the Constitution; potential; and physical and neuro-psychiatric fitness.”

Housecleaning is a continuing undertaking, and the one in the PNP is no different. It didn’t take long for new scalawags to take the place of those purged. Alunan said a possible reason is that there was no follow-through by subsequent administrations on the PNP reforms under FVR.

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Every new president, upon assuming office, has demanded courtesy resignations from all political appointees in the executive branch.

But police officers, particularly those who have risen to star rank or even colonel, are career officials who are protected by civil service rules. They can refuse to submit a courtesy resignation; after all, the operative word is “courtesy.”

You don’t need to specify a reason for accepting a courtesy resignation. On the other hand, if a PNP officer resents the acceptance and deems it without cause, can the officer pose a legal challenge?

Some officers are saying that Abalos and Azurin should just file charges against any PNP member suspected of wrongdoing. The dismissal of the officer can then be based on evidence.

Abalos has reassured the PNP officers that those who have done nothing wrong have nothing to fear.

In our country poisoned by politics, however, what’s to stop the current administration from using the purge for political vendetta?

There are reported grumblings within the PNP that this is nothing but a move to cleanse the police force of elements whose political loyalties are suspect.

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If the purge worked during Ramos’ time, it was partly because he was not a divisive president, but the opposite: he truly pushed Team Philippines, and did not merely pay lip service to national unity. It also helped that FVR, as former PC-INP chief, personally knew most of the officers affected.

The creation of the PNP allowed officers trained for a different profession, at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), to enter the civilian police service. Whether the change led to positive transformation in law enforcement is debatable.

Less than two months into his presidency, Ramos fired the first PNP chief, Cesar Nazareno of the PMA’s Class of 1961, over corruption charges involving ghost purchases of combat uniforms and equipment worth P38.2 million. Nazareno died in 2006 with the case still unresolved. In 2011, nine of his police co-defendants in the case, led by the former head of the PNP Logistics Command, Director Everlino Nartatez, were convicted of graft by the Sandiganbayan and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Several other PNP chiefs have since faced criminal indictments for offenses related to corruption, illegal drug deals, human rights violation and murder.

President Marcos might want to check out what his uncle FVR did to clean up the PNP.

Alunan declined to comment on BBM’s cleansing, saying it still lacked details. But Alunan stresses that cleaning up the PNP must be part of a larger program to reform the entire criminal justice system.