PNP chief Purisima faces new administrative, criminal raps

PNP Director General Alan Purisima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–‎Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima is facing criminal and administrative charges anew over the alleged irregularities in the supposed P25-million construction of the “white house” or the PNP chief’s official residence in Camp Crame.

‎Anti-crime watchdog Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) filed the cases against Purisima before the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday–a day after the PNP chief returned to the Philippines after a week of keeping mum about his allegations.

The VACC lodged criminal cases plunder, graft, and indirect bribery and administrative offenses of dishonesty, grave misconduct, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Purisima.

The group also called for Purisima’s suspension “so as not to interfere with the proper conduct of the investigation.”

“Since June 2014 or thereabout, respondent in numerous interviews with the media was queried about the source of funding and the costs of the construction of the edifice but his answers were vague, evasive and unresponsive,” VACC president Dante Jimenez wrote in the complaint.

“It is safe to conclude that  the source(s) of funding in  the construction or renovation of the “white house”  came from private individual or entity as there was absolutely no proof that it came from the government. Likewise, respondent is [deemed] to have accepted the same in relation to his office considering that he is the Chief PNP and the said edifice serves and he actually uses it as his quarter as the PNP Chief,” Jimenez added.

Last week, the Coalition of Filipino Consumers ‎also filed plunder, indirect bribery and graft complaints against Purisima over his allegedly shady P100-million ‎deal with a documentation agency for firearms delivery and his alleged hidden properties in Nueva Ecija.

Purisima was out of the country from September 22 until 26 for an anti-‎kidnapping and anti-extortion conference in Bogota, Colombia.

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