Malacañang to conduct audit of public safety college, says PNP source

SAN PEDRO, Laguna, Philippines — Malacañang has ordered an audit of the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) after the director of the police training academy alleged corrupt practices within the police’s training school.

Malacañang would first investigate PPSC president and former Upi, Maguindanao Mayor Ruben Platon, according to a ranking official of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

But “as to how far (the audit) goes, we have yet to know,” said the official, who requested anonymity for not having been authorized to discuss the Palace directive with the media, in a phone interview Sunday.

He said the order came late Thursday, the same time that Malacañang reinstated the 240 police training officers and instructors of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) and the Philippine National Training Institute (PNTI), among them the PNPA director, Chief Supt. Noel Constantino.

Constantino earlier accused the PPSC, an attached agency of the Department of Interior and Local Government that has supervision over PNPA and PNTI, of mishandling government funds allotted for the police cadets.

Constantino believed his decision to “instill reforms” in the PNPA was one reason why Platon did not renew his six-month detail to the police academy in Silang, Cavite, as its chief training officer.

Platon, in an earlier phone interview, said he felt “slighted” as Constantino “acted on his own without the PPSC’s knowledge.”

He said the PNP could have appealed the PPSC’s decision on Sept. 27 not to renew Constantino’s detail but it instead recalled the 48 other policemen from the PNPA and 191 from the PNTI in Calamba City, Laguna, “making it appear that (the other) PNP (training officers) were resigning but weren’t.”

Platon, who was recommended by his predecessor and President Aquino’s aunt, Margarita Cojuangco, to head the PPSC, said Constantino did not inform him of these “reforms” being implemented at the PNPA.

Platon, contacted on Sunday, refused to take calls or answer text messages on the supposed “irregularities” alleged by the PNPA chief.

Among these practices, Constantino said, were the “overpriced” rubber shoes and computer laptops and insurance policies “being forced on the cadets.”

“The cadets came to call it ‘issuematic’ because these were automatically deducted from the cadet’s salaries,” he said.

A cadet receives a P30,000 monthly allowance, which he could spend on his personal needs. But Constantino said the PPSC imposed expenses, such as P3,500 for a pair of rubber shoes, or rifle butts from suppliers that did not have contracts with the government.

Constantino said he just recently found out that the tailor, who supplied the cadet’s uniforms for the last six years, did not have a contract with PNPA.

Constantino said he was working on his report alleging instances of corruption and would go two to three years back. The report, which he intended to submit to Congress would include suggestions for reforms. Congress is now hearing a pending bill that seeks to place PNPA and PNTI under the sole control of PNP.

One problem, he said, was, “(PPSC) wouldn’t tell me how much budget was approved for the PNPA, for instance. When I asked them three months ago, the PPSC said that’s confidential, so I couldn’t really answer you now how much could have been pocketed.”