Purisima leaving ‘White House’

Former PNP chief Alan Purisima
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines—Alan Purisima has started vacating the so-called White House—the official residence he had built for himself at the cost of millions of pesos in private donations when he was chief of the Philippine National Police that drew widespread publicity as corruption allegations were thrown against him last year.

Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. said Purisima started moving out of his quarters on Sunday—two days after President Aquino announced in a nationally televised he had accepted his close friend’s resignation with a tinge of regret, citing a longtime association that began as his security officer during the term of his mother, President Cory Aquino.

“The White House is the official residence of the PNP chief, so with [Purisima’s] resignation, he no longer has the privilege [to stay there],” said Cerbo.

The PNP spokesperson said that an outgoing chief was normally given one month to vacate his quarters.

Purisima tendered his resignation as the nation’s top police official last week, following public criticism over his alleged hand in the botched operation against two “high-value” terrorists in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, although he had been serving a preventive suspension sentence ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman since December.

Forty-four members of the PNP Special Action Force were massacred in the Mamasapano incident on Jan. 25.

Asked where Purisima will now take office, Cerbo said he would still be reporting to Camp Crame, but would be on “nonduty status,” without an assignment.

The former PNP chief’s White House, along with his rest house in Nueva Ecija province, became the focus of media attention amid corruption allegations against him.

The residence in Camp Crame was constructed with private donations totaling P11.5 million after the Department of Public Works and Highways found that it was in a flood-prone area in the PNP headquarters compound.

In December, Purisima was placed on preventive suspension for an alleged anomalous contract the PNP signed with a courier delivery company in 2011.