MANILA, Philippines — Amid the corruption controversy ignited by Senator Manny Pacquiao’s exposés, the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday denied allegations of anomalies in the force’s procurement of body cameras.
The said allegation circulated on social media, according to PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar.
“We are currently coordinating with the office of Sen. Manny Pacquiao to verify if he indeed mentioned the PNP in his alleged list of corrupt government agencies through the procurement of the body cameras,” Eleazar said in a statement.
“Ganunpaman, I assure our kababayan na walang nangyaring nakawan ng pondo sa transaksyong ito,” he added.
(However, I assure the public that no theft of funds occurred in this transaction.)
The PNP launched the use of body cameras on June 4 in an attempt to guard against incidents of possible police abuse.
According to Eleazar, the money used for procuring the cameras are fully accounted for by Congress.
“Sa katunayan ay nakatipid pa nga ang PNP ng mahigit P45 milyon sa transaksyong ito at ang natipid na perang ito ay inilaan na sa pagbili ng mga high-definition CCTVs na siyang gagamitin sa aming operasyon kontra insurgency at terorismo,” Eleazar said.
(In fact, the PNP even saved more than P45 million in this transaction and the money saved has been allocated to the purchase of high-definition CCTVs that will be used in our operations against insurgency and terrorism.)
Senator Pacquiao, however, has so far only revealed the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as the ones included in his list of corrupt agencies.
“If indeed Sen. Pacquiao said that there was corruption in the procurement of bodycams, we would appreciate if he could provide us the details and I assure him that we would look into it,” said Eleazar.
The Department of Defense has also earlier released a statement against an allegation that was supposedly released by Pacquiao’s camp — which also circulated on social media.
Pacquiao’s camp however has already denied releasing such information.