MANILA, Philippines — The five-member advisory group tasked to screen the top brass of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is planning to start its assessment by next week.
PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said Wednesday that they are currently in the process of finalizing the review guidelines.
“Hopefully, by Monday or by early next week, we will already start working, kumpleto na kami. I was able to talk to former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro kagabi, so iyong ni-re-review iyong guidelines na naumpisahan namin ng Monday. So once na-finalize iyan, we start working,” he told reporters in Camp Crame.
(Hopefully, by Monday or by early next week, we will already start working, and we’ll be complete. I talked to former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro last night, so we’re reviewing the guidelines we started working on Monday. So once that’s finalized, we start working.)
Only Teodoro was not present during the panel’s first in-person meeting, where they had discussed the “house rules” for the assessment.
Azurin said they are still defining the scope and limitations of the review process so as “not to overstep and violate the rights of senior officers.”
He reiterated his vow for the review to yield “acceptable” results as he underscored the weight of their recommendations to the National Police Commission (Napolcom) in deciding the fate of senior PNP officers.
“These are career officers. They worked hard for it so dapat siguraduhin natin na kung ano man yung magiging recommendation ng advisory group sa Napolcom or review prior sa irerecomend sa Presidente, dapat ay katanggap tanggap yan dahil more than 20 years na career ng mga senior officers na ito,” Azurin said.
(These are career officers. They worked hard for it, so we should make sure that the advisory group’s recommendations to Napolcom or the President are acceptable since the senior officers worked hard for more than 20 years.)
According to Azurin, PNP public information office chief Col. Rederico Maranan has been named as the spokesperson of the advisory group.
Asked how often Maranan will give updates about the review of PNP’s top brass, he said: “It should be on a regular basis lalo na kung may mga document na na-process at kung kailangan bigyan ng update ang media, especially mga personnel natin, mas maganda, so mawala iyong agam-agam ng mga third-level officers natin.”
(It should be on a regular basis especially once the documents have been processed and should the media and our personnel need updates, that would be great, so the fears of our third-level officers can be allayed.)
After the Azurin-led body conducts its review, it will submit a list of high-ranking PNP officers found to have ties with the illegal drug trade to Napolcom.
Napolcom will then amend the list before turning it over to the President, who will make the final decision on the courtesy resignations of the police officials.
A total of 943 of the 955 police colonels and generals in the country tendered their courtesy resignations in support of the government’s bid to cleanse the PNP ranks of possible links to illicit drugs.