‘Tarlac shooting no isolated case’

MANILA, Philippines — The killing of Sonya and Frank Anthony Gregorio by a police officer in Paniqui, Tarlac, is not an isolated case, a lawmaker said on Thursday.

Agusan del Norte First District Rep. Lawrence Fortun said “there appears to be a constant recurrence of brutality” involving police officers.

“The ruthless crimes we have seen certain police officers commit are just too dreadful to forget and ignore as isolated cases. A problem can never be addressed without first recognizing it exists. These are not isolated cases,” Fortun said in a statement.

The lawmaker cited the need for a “thorough, systematic cleansing of police stations,” calling for a House investigation into the charges filed against police officers.

“We have decent members of the PNP (Philippine National Police) and we cannot allow these criminal viruses in uniform to cause a pandemic in our police force,” he said.

According to Fortun, the House committees on justice and on public order and security could immediately launch a motu proprio investigation in aid of legislation “to scrutinize criminal and administrative complaints against police officers filed over the past 10 years.”“We are alarmed that many of these are casually dismissed for the usual reason of lack of evidence. This is very suspect,” he said.

The committees, he said, “should include in their investigations a thorough and complete review of the personnel selection, screening, and disciplinary processes, as well as financial transaction of the National Police Commission, PNP Academy, Philippine Public Safety College, the PNP directorates, provincial offices and police districts.”

“We know that reform measures have been instituted in the PNP, but we cannot stop there in light of these recent horrifying brutality involving police officers,” he said. Fortun called for “credible and complete third-party reviews of the police recruitment and selection processes, including a much more stringent psychiatric evaluation of every applicant and every current officer seeking promotion and transfer.” “The rules governing placing any officer on floating status and disciplinary action must also be reviewed. We do not want the PNP to simply just wait for the dust to settle, for the public anger to wane, for the people to forget before quietly promoting and transferring police officers who have been the subject of disciplinary action,” he said.

He said the probe against police crimes and misconduct must be transferred to the Department of Justice or under a new bureau or office “to ensure fairness and impartiality in these investigations.” INQ