MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) should focus on cleansing its ranks instead of running after couples who engage in public display affection (PDA), a lawmaker said Friday.
Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) Partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles dubbed as “absurd” PNP’s remarks discouraging people from displaying affection in public, saying that the police force has “bigger fish to fry.”
“Physical distancing is a collective effort in the fight against the virus, but the men and women of the PNP have bigger fish to fry. The top brass should review their priorities,” Nograles said in a statement.
“What is happening with our PNP? There are more immediate and pressing matters other than running after couples. The security guards and the barangay tanods are already actively reminding people of physical distancing,” the lawmaker added.
Nograles pointed out that PNP has recently been involved in series of controversies such as the death of Calbayog City mayor Ronal Aquino as well as the shootout between their personnel and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives.
“Unless the top brass wants the people to fear the police instead of seeing them as professional public servants, then the PNP has to take action against scalawags and misfits,” Nograles said.
Nograles earlier filed House Bill no. 3065, otherwise known as the Internal Affairs Reform and Reorganization Act, to provide the PNP-Internal Affairs Service (IAS) full autonomy in the investigation and prosecution of police scalawags.
“The present Internal Affairs Service has zero backlog in cases against police officers, but sadly, the recommendations to reprimand, fire, and file criminal and administrative cases are only recommendatory and not entirely independent of the PNP,” he said.
“We need to change this to help professionalize the service. We need to strengthen Internal Affairs as an independent, impartial, effective and an efficient institutional guardian of integrity,” he added.