8 cops caught sleeping while on duty during ‘Undas’

MANILA, Philippines — Eight police officers were caught sleeping while on duty in Metro Manila during the “Undas” season, Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, acting director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said Tuesday.

Sinas said the eight police officers, whose identities he did not disclose, were spotted by his “red teams” assigned to hunt down NCRPO personnel not following orders, including the directive to not play golf during weekdays.

The so-called “red teams” in civilian clothing make rounds within Metro Manila and capture photos of policemen caught in act of disobeying orders. The group directly reports to Sinas.

READ: ‘Red team’ to go after Metro cops hooked on playing golf, clubbing

“’Pag natutulog ‘yung pulis, picturan lang ‘yan, [and then] investigate, kausapin (They just take a photo of the sleeping policeman and then investigate, and we talk to them),” he said in a press briefing at the Kamuning Police Station in Quezon City.

Those caught sleeping were four officers from police stations in Makati City, two from Valenzuela City, and two from Caloocan City, according to Sinas. They were spotted snoozing in separate incidents from October 28 to November 2.

He said the chiefs of police will be the ones to identify the punishment for these officers, who could be liable for less serious offenses. For now, they were just ordered to explain but are still in their current posts.

“Twelve hours [of duty] ‘yan, tapos red alert pa, almost tuloy-tuloy; tapos pagdating sa after 12 hours, babalik ka sa post. Kapag tinanggal natin ‘yan makukulangan naman sila ng tao (That’s twelve hours [of duty] and the police were on red alert. If we remove them from their posts, the police stations would lack personnel). That’s why we let the chief of police handle the internal discipline of their people,” he said. /je