20,000 cops charged every year

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Some 20,000 policemen face complaints for various offenses in the National Police Commission (Napolcom) annually. Last year, 72 police personnel among them were charged with violation of human rights.

Eduardo Escueta, Napolcom vice chair, said the figure was not alarming, considering the current strength of the Philippine National Police was around 150,000.

“If you look at the ratio, that’s only a small percentage of the total PNP strength,” Escueta told reporters at Camp Crame.

“These are complaints of private citizens involving allegations of abuse. We tallied all the pending cases nationwide and it turned out that an average of about 20,000 (policemen) are being charged every year,” he said.

He said most of the cases were filed against policemen in Metro Manila who were involved in extortion, which has been plaguing the police service since its reorganization in 1992.