Cascolan wants erring cops locked-up ‘like criminals’

MANILA, Philippines — Offending police officers arrested after internal cleansing operations should be treated like civilian criminals by putting them behind bars and not just restraining them in camps, PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan said Monday.

This directive, he noted, is among his latest guidelines that also include the decongestion of Camp Crame, the main police camp, by transferring some national support units to other locations;  and training of all police officers to be skilled marksmen and investigators.

His likewise issued guidelines on “eight-hour shifts, on a case-to-case basis, depending on the obtaining situation in certain areas of responsibility, based on the crime clock,” and on enhancing community policing in barangays.

“Police personnel arrested in internal cleansing operations should be put in [cells], not just restrained. They should be treated as criminals too, lalong lalo na ‘yung mga involved sa (especially those involved in) criminality,” Cascolan told a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

“Ano ba ang ginagawa mo kapag nakahuli ka ng tao mo (police officer) na nagpapasugal? Tinatapon mo ba kaagad ‘yan sa presuhan? Tell me. Treat [them] the same way as we treat the criminals in our organization. Dapat nga mas masahol pa ‘yung treatment natin sa mga tao natin, ‘di ba?” he added.

(What do you do when you catch a police officer engaged in gambling? Do you immediately send him to jail? Tell me. Treat [them] the same way as we treat the criminals in our organization. We should even be harsher on them, right?)

But Cascolan still leaves this matter to the discretion of unit commanders.

Cascolan then stressed police officers should “pay back” through their committed service to the country after receiving the significant increase in their pay as granted by President Rodrigo Duterte back in 2018.

“The President always says, ‘I am for you.’ That’s why what we need are people who are disciplined, that would be able to give their whole and full performance para bawi naman ang gobyerno, ‘di ba (so that the government can recoup, right)?” he said.

KGA