Cop in poll fraud has until midnight Tuesday to report back to work—PNP

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police said Tuesday it was poised to drop poll fraud whistle-blower Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago from its rolls for being absent without official leave  unless he reported back to work by midnight at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

PNP Director General Raul M. Bacalzo said Santiago, who had been AWOL since his reassignment to the PNP directorate for operations in July, would be dismissed unless he returned to duty and sufficiently explained his prolonged unauthorized absence.

“He was supposed to be reporting today, August 9, and if he cannot report today, according to our procedure, he will be declared AWOL and dropped from the rolls,” Bacalzo told reporters.

But Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said Santiago was no longer considered AWOL since their meeting last Friday, in which the secretary agreed to reassign Santiago and four members of his team to Robredo’s office at the PNP headquarters.

Bacalzo said he had been informed of the arrangements made by Robredo.  “As far as we are concerned they remain unaccounted for,” Bacalzo said.

On the other hand, Robredo said he already officially notified Bacalzo on Saturday.

Asked if this meant Santiago and his team were no longer considered AWOL, Robredo replied by text message: “Not anymore.” He said earlier that Santiago and his team were now temporarily posted at the National Police Commission-DILG office at Camp Crame.

PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr. called a briefing later Tuesday to clarify that although Santiago’s group was now considered AWOL, “they would not be automatically dropped from the rolls.”

Cruz said they would have to subtract holidays and weekends from the 30-day period since the group’s failure to report on July 7.

Cruz said the PNP was aware of the communication between Santiago’s group and the DILG, but as men of uniform, they were still called upon to formally report to duty to their immediate officers.

He said that at the level of the PNP, Santiago’s group had not officially returned to work and had not yet requested for a new assignment.

“But we’re not being adversarial. We just have to put things in black and white. It can’t be just all talk,” said Cruz.

Following his relief as Zambales provincial director in July, Santiago and his team surfaced to reveal they stole original election returns in 2005 and switched them with fake ones to ensure that former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would win in a recount against her closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Santiago said he and his boys had acted on the orders, coursed through subordinates, of then PNP Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., now the governor of Zambales. He also implicated several other officials.