Suspension awaits lax and inefficient cops, new PNP chief warns

Inefficient police units and policemen committing even minor offenses may soon face the axe, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde warned on Monday, and encouraged them to urgently change their bad habits.

Emphasizing the importance of discipline in the police force, Albayalde said policemen engaged in illegal activities as well as inefficient and lax policemen would all be relieved from their positions under his intensified internal cleansing program, which he intended to become the trademark of his PNP leadership.

“Kapag merong nagsabi sa atin na ‘yung isang complainant, ‘yung isang kababayan natin pumunta sa isang istasyon at sinagot ng ating mga pulis na walang gas, wala ‘yung imbestigador, wala ‘yung chief of police, tanggal lahat nang mga ‘yan, and we will investigate them,” Albayalde said in a press briefing on Monday at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

(If a complainant or an individual goes to a station and a policeman answered him that there is no gas, no investigator, or the chief of police is not around, we will relieve them all and investigate them.)

“Minimum ‘yan suspension, we promise you that kung hindi magbago ‘yung pulis natin on the ground,” he added.

(We will suspend them at the minimum and we promise you that if our men on the ground do not change their ways.)

The newly installed police cheif said the Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) would also go after policemen who continue to commit minor violations like not wearing helmet when riding motorcycles or texting while on the job.

“Ito yung mga sinasabing maliliit na bagay, ang tanong naman natin kung maliliit na bagay ito, bakit hindi magawa ng ating kapulisan?” he said.

(These are what we call the small things. But my question is if these are small things, why can’t our policemen do it?)

The police chief said there is no reason for them disobey the law and to slack on the job, given that the government has been consistently providing them equipment and resources needed to effectively carry out their jobs.

He noted that he does not only want to get rid of the “misguided souls” in the PNP but also change the attitude and culture in the police force.

Not rhetoric

Albayalde said the PNP’s internal cleansing program under his watch is not a plain rhetoric, citing the dismissal of 279 policemen, suspension of 825, and demoting of 99 officials during his stint as the regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

He said that he also transferred 365 NCRPO men to Mindanao and filed at least 1700 cases against erring policemen.

“How can you say that was rhetoric?” Albayalde said, noting that he would replicate his efforts in NCR nationwide.

The new police chief assumed his position last week and vowed to continue his “low-key but stern kind of leadership.”          /kga