Cases vs rogue cops up

The number of policemen facing administrative charges stemming from their duty as law enforcers went up in 2015 compared to recent years.

Faced with the increasing harassment cases against policemen and a small staff, the Philippine National Police’s Legal Service urged lawyers to join the PNP as legal officers.

For 2015 so far, 202 policemen have been slapped with administrative charges, compared with the previous year’s 82 cases. In 2013, only 24 policemen faced such cases.

This means that so far, the PNP Legal Service is assisting 426 policemen in defending themselves from such cases.

Supt. Lyra Stella Valera, Legal Service spokesperson, said it is possible that more administrative cases were filed because of the “Oplan Lambat Sibat,” an anticrime campaign launched last year.

“It really depends on the kind of operations, for 2015, the figures possibly went up because of the Oplan Lambat Sibat. When conducting operations, our policeman are vulnerable to service-connected cases,” Valera said.

Most of the counter-charges filed against policemen in operating units are harassment, trespassing, robbery and extortion.

Valera noted that more policemen are now vulnerable to such administrative cases because lawmen are more active in anticrime operations like the Oplan Lambat Sibat.

However, there are only 100 policemen-lawyers assigned to the Legal Service who are handling the increasing number of administrative cases against law enforcers.

Valera assured that even though they are short of lawyers, the Legal Service is doing its best to defend policemen troubled by administrative or harassment cases.

The Legal Service called on lawyers to consider applying as PNP lawyers to help lawmen in defending themselves from harassment cases filed by criminals. A lawyer entering the PNP has a starting rank of senior inspector.