FILE PHOTO: Philippine National Police.
More than 1,200 police personnel were sanctioned for violations of the law and regulations, according to the Philippine National Police.
Based on its records from July 1 to Dec. 7, a total of 1,211 PNP personnel were meted sanctions ranging from withholding of privileges to dismissal from the service as part of an intensified drive to clean the service of scalawags.
Out of this number, 279 personnel were dismissed from the service for different administrative cases lodged against them, 79 were demoted, 472 suspended and 381 personnel meted with penalties of forfeiture of salary, reprimand, restriction and withholding of privileges.
The PNP noted that the high numbers were proof of its “its relentless and sustained campaign against misfits among its ranks.”
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos on Monday vowed to get rid of rogue law enforcers, following the recent arrest of three Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency personnel, including a district chief, in a drug buy-bust in Taguig City.
“I would like to assure the public that we are going to cleanse our own ranks. To the scalawags, we will go after you. It is not right that in the war on drugs, we are being shot from behind by our own forces,” he said.
In a related development, two Makati police officers were arrested by the PNP anti-scalawag unit, the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG), for extorting money from civilians.
In a report forwarded to PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., the suspects were identified as Patrolmen Mark Dann Advincula, 32, and Mark Joseph Segador, 31, both assigned to the Sub-Station 6 of Makati police.
They were arrested by IMEG agents in an entrapment operation at 4:30 a.m. on Friday along A. Mabini Street in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.
The operation was based on the complaints of two residents of Quezon City, who reported that the suspects took away their phones and extorted money from them.
According to an investigation, on Dec. 8, one of the complainants, a woman, met a foreigner in Poblacion and befriended her, after which they exchanged contact numbers.
The following day, she received a message from a different cellphone number—which was traced to Advincula—inviting her to come to the Makati police station to answer a complaint supposedly filed by a foreigner about a missing ATM card and cash worth P130,000.
When she met Advincula in Makati, she was brought to Makati Police Sub-Station 6 in Poblacion, where her phone was seized. The two policemen also went to her house in Quezon City and confiscated the phone of the other complainant, a man. They were told that their phones would only be released to them upon payment of P50,000.
But the two victims filed a complaint before IMEG, which set up the sting operation that resulted in the arrest of Advincula and Segador, who are now detained at the IMEG office in Camp Crame pending the filing of criminal and administrative complaints against them.
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