Stay politically neutral, NCRPO chief tells men

POLITICAL AD-FREE ZONE Tarpaulins endorsing political candidates cannot be displayed in any police camp, according to Metro Manila’s top cop. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Metro Manila’s top cop has reminded his men that police camps should remain “neutral grounds” that are divorced from politics, days after a tarpaulin in support of senatorial candidate Christopher “Bong” Go was spotted hanging on the gate of Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar, told the Inquirer on Sunday that he ordered the tarpaulin taken down as soon as it came to his attention.

The tarpaulin — which bore a photo of Go and President Rodrigo Duterte with the message “We support Kuya Bong Go; Tuloy ang Pagbabago” — was installed by the Special Action Force (SAF), which shares the compound with the NCRPO and other agencies, Eleazar said.

According to him, Go was the guest of honor at a SAF training and the tarpaulin might have been meant to welcome the former presidential aide.

Eleazar admitted, however, that the wording of the message was evidently an endorsement, rather than a mere greeting.

This violated the Philippine National Police’s Ethical Doctrine Manual and the President’s own recent warning to uniformed personnel not to “take sides either for or against my party.”

The 1987 Constitution, under Article 9, also mandates that “no officer or employee in the civil service shall engage, directly or indirectly, in any electioneering or partisan political campaign.”

Eleazar’s directive

“I told [SAF] that next time, if they put something up, it must be a welcome tarpaulin only,” Eleazar said. “I instructed all camps and police officers that this should not happen. We are neutral.”

A photo of the tarpaulin went viral on Facebook on Dec. 10, prompting an uproar.

Netizens had been in a frenzy about Go’s election materials as early as July when billboards featuring his face began to pop up in major cities and expressways across the country.

In 2009, however, the Supreme Court ruled that premature campaigning was not an election offense, categorizing would-be candidates’ advertising materials as a mere “exercise of freedom of expression.”