‘Honesty teams’ to go after corrupt cops

By: Julliane Love De Jesus - 10 years ago

Philippine National Polic. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—”Honesty teams” will start going after corrupt policemen once the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) starts conducting lifestyle checks on the entire Philippine National Police (PNP) force.

‎According to Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP Public Information Office chief, ‎”honesty teams” from the PNP’s intelligence units will be sent out in two weeks to look into the properties and activities of corrupt policemen.

He said lifestyle checks on‎ policemen have been a practice in the PNP whenever they apply for promotion and submit their statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

‎”This time, a re-energized honesty team will be dispatched from the (PNP) Directorate for Intelligence,” he said.

Each team is ‎composed of police officers in plainclothes.

The honesty teams have been in existence since 2006 under the leadership of former PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon.

“The only difference now is that ‎a new mechanism has been created,” Sindac added.

Last week, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II vowed to conduct an inspection of PNP members’ properties, starting from the policemen of highest ranks down to the lowest.

The move was taken after some Quezon City policemen linked to the Edsa robbery and abduction incident were found to have declared multi-million peso worth of assets in their personal data sheets.