PNP on rookie policemen: So young yet so …

More rookie policemen (Police Officers 1 to 3) commit disciplinary offenses than ranking officers in the Philippine National Police (PNP), belying the notion that a lawman grows more corrupt the higher he climbs up the ladder.

Records in the PNP showed that most of the police officers dismissed from the service belonged to the lowest rungs of the 140,000-strong organization—with many of them involved in abuses and crimes that merited disciplinary sanctions, according to PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr.

He noted that the majority of the 66 policemen dismissed in the first four months ranked from Police Officer 1 to 3 and that none of them was a commissioned officer (with the rank of Inspector upwards).

“[This] shows that the lower the rank, the higher the likelihood [of getting] involved in crime,” Cerbo told reporters in a briefing at Camp Crame.

He added: “We see based on the trending that the problem starts at the training and selection process.”

According to him, this has prompted the PNP leadership to inculcate the policy of “command responsibility at all levels,” from provincial directors to precinct commanders and beat patrol leaders.

“This is why the change has to be at the level of the PNP command … If the problem is only one individual, the problem is with him alone but if it is rampant, then there is a problem with the commanders,” Cerbo said.

Based on figures provided by the PNP’s Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, 85 NCOs or noncommissioned officers (PO1 to Senior Police Officer 4) were dismissed from the service from Jan. 1 to May 15, in addition to a nonuniformed worker.

Four commissioned officers (COs or with the rank of Inspector up) and 15 NCOs were demoted; 15 COs, 121 NCOs and two nonuniformed workers were suspended while a CO and two NCOs had their salaries forfeited in the same period.

All in all, of the 446 cases the PNP resolved in that period, a total of 60 COs, 508 NCOs and five nonuniformed workers were involved. A total of 412 cases are still pending.