Interior Secretary Mar Roxas: Assurance. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on Tuesday assured the public that institutional reforms in the 150,000-strong Philippine National Police would continue amid allegations of corruption against PNP Director General Alan Purisima.
Addressing the forum of Koalisyon ng mga Mamamayan para sa Reporma here, Roxas said the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) was close to finalizing an agreement with other government agencies in implementing much-needed changes in the police force.
“No one is above the law. That’s the policy I will always enforce in the DILG,” Roxas said at the event held at Ateneo de Davao University.
“We will not turn a blind eye. We will not spare anyone. Everybody will be subjected to the process we are enforcing in the PNP,” he stressed.
Asked if he would support mounting calls for Purisima’s resignation, he said: “As President Aquino said, there’s a process. We will observe that process.”
The interior secretary said the DILG would enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Bureau of Internal Revenue regarding the conduct of lifestyle check on police personnel.
According to him, the PNP has also introduced reforms in the recruitment of officers by ensuring “objective measures” in the hiring process.
Roxas noted that the PNP had been besieged by allegations that aspiring policemen could just bribe senior police officials assigned to screen applicants.