"This will be good for the PNP."
"This will be good for the PNP."
It should be a no-brainer for everyone concerned to agree that the Philippine National Police Internal Affairs Service should be separated from the police organization and given more authority to prosecute scalawag policemen.
In fact, this should be one of the concrete steps the government should take to help restore credibility and instill integrity in the PNP by making IAS more effective in performing its mandate.
That is why I agree and support IAS Inspector-General Alfegar Triambulo because he has a valid reason to call on the Congress to amend Republic Act 8551, titled “PNP Reform and Reorganization Act,” and make IAS a separate body.
IAS should be made an independent body as justified by the unfortunate events leading to the resignation of P/General Oscar Albayalde as Chief PNP. For how could IAS effectively deal with the case of the so-called ninja cops when the 13 policemen recommended dismissed were Albayalde’s men whom he supposedly coddled and protected?
Triambulo proposes that the powers of the National Police Commission be clipped, reducing it to a policy-making body or administrator of the PNP to avoid duplication of work. It will then be IAS which shall be tasked to conduct inspection and audit of the performance of the police force.
The Napolcom is an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which has administrative control over the PNP.
IAS is now directly under the supervision of the Office of the Chief PNP, which means that all their recommendations are subject to an automatic review and approval by the Chief PNP.
What if the same situation arises again, involving top PNP officials in criminal cases of their subordinates? Clearly there will be conflict of interest.
Triambulo also points out that IAS lacks the power to protect witnesses against corrupt police officers as it only handles administrative cases and not criminal complaints.
According to Triambulo, resigned Chief PNP Albayalde had issued a memorandum that all their resolutions will be passed on to the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management for review.
The situation was different under former PNP chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who would automatically approve Triambulo’s resolutions for implementation.
He lamented that only 30 percent of IAS resolutions on administrative cases were implemented during Albayalde’s tenure.
Now, P/Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, the current officer-in-charge of the PNP, himself has acknowledged during his first command conference that the national police organization suffered “a bit of loss on credibility” in the aftermath of the ninja cops controversy.
The revelations brought out in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee proved too unconscionable as to allow General Oscar Albayalde to stay another day more than necessary as Chief PNP.
Being implicated in his own men’s nefarious activities when he was the Pampanga Provincial Police commander, Albayalde no longer appears to be the clean and honest top cop he seemed to be when President Rodrigo Duterte designated him as Chief PNP.
Albayalde’s 13 ninja cops’ “recycling” or reselling of confiscated 162 kilos of shabu worth P648 million, setting free the Chinese drug dealer, and apparent whitewashing of the policemen’s dismissal case just vehemently undermined his leadership.
I strongly believe that the 190,000-strong PNP can turn this debacle around by booting out the bad eggs.
But first, PNP-IAS needs to be a separate and independent body.