US Embassy likens dirty Philippine cops to Al Capone era

Dirty elements in the Philippine National Police are cut from the same cloth as cops in the bygone eras of Al Capone and LA Confidential—at least on the reckoning of the US Embassy in Manila in 2005, a posting on WikiLeaks showed.

“Mission observers compare the PNP to police forces in Al Capone’s Chicago or 1940s  ‘LA Confidential’ Los Angeles,” the sensitive US memo said, encapsulating the ill repute of the PNP, which remains mired in corruption scandals to this day.

The declassified memo further described the daily exposure of citizens to corrupt and inefficient police officers as a “cancer upon the body politic.”

The scathing assessment was made in April 2005 by Joseph Mussomeli, then charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy in Manila, in a diplomatic cable titled, “Law Enforcement Corruption in the Philippines.”

But the cable takes on added resonance in the wake of controversies rocking the 110-year-old institution, especially the 2009 purchase of secondhand helicopters by the PNP that had led to the recent filing of plunder charges against former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and top retired and active police officials.

Management a mess

A series of other anomalies had beleaguered the PNP—from its 2009 purchase of rubber boats incompatible with the outboard motors to the 2007 overpriced repairs of light armored personnel carriers.

Both are now the subjects of probes, along with the recent discovery of more than 2,000 “ghost” pensioners receiving false retirement claims of up to P1 billion since 2006.

“The PNP management is a mess,” Mussomeli said in the 2005 cable. He cited Transparency International’s “2004 Global Corruption Barometer” that found the PNP to be the most corrupt national institution in the Philippines.

“However, PNP corruption is exacerbated by Philippine law, which gives local officials control over the appointment and dismissal of local PNP commanders, encouraging corrupt city mayors to make common cause with dishonest police commanders,” he said.

Situation has changed

The PNP spokesperson, Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., said the 140,000-strong PNP had vastly changed since Mussomeli made his remarks six years ago.

“Definitely the situation at the time the alleged report was made is no longer the same as it is now,” Cruz told the Inquirer by text message.

“A lot of improvements have been made over the years along the area of reforms in systems and procedures including values orientation of personnel as a result of the Integrated Transformation Program and the Performance Governance System,” Cruz said.

In his report, Mussomeli also observed other PNP shortcomings,  including “investigative shortcuts that often employ physical abuse, the planting of evidence, and sometimes—allegedly under guidance from local elected officials—the extrajudicial killing of criminal suspects.”

“The PNP suffers from a potent combination of malfeasance (misconduct or wrongdoing) and misfeasance (improper and unlawful execution of an act that in itself is lawful and proper) within an institutional culture of poor management,” he said.

But Mussomeli noted that individual police officers, especially junior ones, were usually found to be courageous but tempted by opportunities to “learn how to earn” from the corrupt officers in the field.

Given the poverty-level wages, he said, this was a “virtual necessity.”

Unholy trinity

“Corruption in the PNP and related agencies stems primarily from the unholy trinity of gambling, drugs and prostitution that beset law enforcement organizations worldwide,” he said.

Mussomeli said the corruption began at the recruitment level, citing press reports of extortion by recruits and the National Police Commission (Napolcom), the official body charged with supervision and recruitment of police officers.

“Police trainees and local government officials have complained that Napolcom officials also sometimes receive amounts ranging from P50,000 to 100,000 ($900-$1,800) for swearing in police recruits who fail the entrance tests but are willing to pay bribes,” he said.

Mussomeli, citing information from PNP contacts, said the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) was “too close and collegial to the force it was supposed to investigate.”

“PNP sources allege the highest levels of the PNP Command Staff and elected officials often pressure IAS to drop or whitewash investigations, and then use dirty cops for their own political ends,” he said.

Rules changed for Mike Arroyo’s kin

Mussomeli also cited questionable procurement activities of the PNP, such as a “controversial procurement decision” in 2003 to replace existing stocks of 9 mm handguns with .45 cal. 1911-A1 pistols.

In a P20-million ($377,358) contract, the PNP amended its 1995 specifications for .45 cal. handguns, causing gun dealers to complain that the changes were made to allow only the purchase of model 1911-A1 pistols made by Arms Corporation of the Philippines (Armscor), he said.

“Gun dealers grumbled that the PNP sought to  ‘change the rules to favor the company owned by (First Gentleman) Mike Arroyo’s first cousin” (Demetrio  ‘Bolo’ Tuason),’” Mussomeli said.

Gun dealers also complained that, in tests conducted by the PNP in October and November 2003, the Armscor pistols’ safety mechanism broke during the drop test and jammed at 3,000 rounds, when the PNP’s minimum for an endurance test is 5,000 rounds, he added.

“During training conducted in 2005 in the Philippines by Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-West personnel, trainers commented that the Armscor .45s were unreliable, inaccurate, and potentially dangerous to the operator.

Nevertheless, Armscor remains an approved supplier to the PNP,” he said.

Aglipay initiative

But Mussomeli praised then Director General Edgar Aglipay who, he said, “made several moves to counter growing criticism of PNP incompetence under the tenure of Hermogenes Ebdane.

“Aglipay used his six-month term in office to acknowledge publicly the PNP’s culture of misfeasance, incompetence, and corruption, and to create disciplinary barracks at the former US Naval base at Subic Bay and in Camp Molintas in Benguet province,” he said.

“In addition, Aglipay inaugurated campaigns against the solicitation of petty bribes for minor traffic offenses, and succeeded in getting officers back in proper uniform, properly groomed, and visible on their beats,” Mussomeli said.

Encouragingly, he added, then incoming Director General Arturo Lomibao “appears ready to continue with many of Aglipay’s initiatives.”