‘Bastardized’ PNP? Lacson alarmed by Eleazar’s admission of data gathering by groups

FILE PHOTO: Senator Panfilo Lacson. PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday raised alarm over the admission of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar that there are “data gathering” activities being done by certain groups in several barangays.

“The Chief PNP’s admission that such data-gathering activities are going on (and still going on, as per latest information received) is alarming. Being their former chief, I cannot allow the PNP to engage in partisan politics and be ‘bastardized’, worse – using public funds,” Lacson, a former PNP chief, said.

Citing reports he received, the senator earlier flagged PNP’s “suspicious” use of anti-insurgency funds for the conduct of a “census” in barangays.

Over the weekend, Lacson tagged Maj. Gen. Rodel Sermonia, the community relations chief of the PNP, as the official who supposedly instructed the conduct of the “census.”

In an ANC interview Tuesday morning, Eleazar denied that the PNP is conducting “census” activities in barangays. He said it was the convenors of certain groups, not the police, who gather information on their members.

But if allegations that the police are involved in their own version of a “census,” Eleazar said it must be stopped and investigated.

READ: PNP chief: Cop-imposed ‘census’ in communities, if true, must be stopped

The PNP chief has also cautioned Sermonia on privacy laws in the groups’ gathering of data among their members.

Still, Lacson maintained that Sermonia should still issue an explanation on the matter.

The senator further claimed that Sermonia was the same “misguided” police official who Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. slammed in an expletive-laden tweet back in 2019.

“The same misguided PNP officer that SFA Locsin ‘lambasted’ for raising funds and campaigning in the 2019 midterm elections while using the resources of several of our country’s embassies around the globe. He has since been promoted to his present rank,” Lacson said.

Locsin, in a Twitter post in October 2019, had slammed a certain “Sermonia” for supposedly lobbying himself in Philippine embassies to become the next PNP chief.

At the time, the foreign affairs chief did not name the police official he was referring to, nor did he categorically mention that embassy resources were used for campaigning in 2019.