Purisima lawyer slams suspension order

PNP Chief Alan Purisima. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The lawyer of National Police chief Dir. Gen. Alan Purisima has slammed an attempt to serve the preventive suspension on the PNP chief as “illegal.”

Lawyer Kristoffer James Purisima, the Philippine National Police chief’s counsel, confirmed in a statement that ‎the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) had attempted to serve the suspension order on Purisima earlier.

But the lawyer said the DILG’s serving of the order was illegal as the agency led by Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II had no administrative supervision over the PNP. PNP is one of the attached agencies of DILG.

Purisima said the PNP is under the National Police Commission’s control.

“The attempt by the DILG to implement the preventive suspension order is patently illegal and will not be honored as it violates due process of law,” he said.

The lawyer said Purisima’s camp would limit ‎its statements on the matter as “it is now pending before the Court of Appeals.”

He also cited Section 6, Article XVI of the Constitution, which stated that “the State shall establish and maintain one police force, which shall be national in scope and civilian in character, to be administered and controlled by a national police commission.”

Last week, the Ombudsman ordered a six-month preventive suspension on Purisima and several other police officials for entering into an allegedly anomalous contract with a courier service for the delivery of gun licenses worth P100-million.

‎The lawyer maintained that the PNP chief is “entitled to all protections, processes and remedies afforded by the rule of law.”

“We lament the apparent dispatch with which the preventive suspension order is being attempted to be crammed down on Purisima, even when the means are against the Constitution and statutes,” he added.