A lawmaker from Valenzuela City called on the high command of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to organize a dedicated police unit whose sole task is to go after scalawags in uniform similar to what the Armed Forces did during the last years of the Cory Aquino administration.
Valenzuela City Congressman Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said the gravity of the problem concerning police scalawags calls for the creation of a PNP Task Force on Counter-Intelligence (TFCI) who will focus on gathering intelligence on known dirty cops and building cases against them to put them behind bars and effectively dismiss them from the service.
“Rogue and dirty cops have no place in the police force. What the PNP high command should do is to organize a dedicated unit that keep the national police free from bad eggs that threaten to tarnish the image of the entire police organization,” said Gatchalian, a former mayor of Valenzuela City.
Gatchalian recalled that during the last years of the Cory Aquino administration, the military leadership created the AFP-Counter Intelligence Group (AFP-CIG) which was successful in going after former rebel soldiers who engaged in abductions and bank robberies after failing to seize power from the Aquino government.
During the Ramos administration, the AFP-CIG was disbanded and the Presidential Task Force on Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence (PTFIC) was set up to go after organized crime groups; some of which were composed of former soldiers and policemen.
Gatchalian also agreed with PNP Director General Alan Purisima that there should be a centralized recruitment system for all would-be policemen since the current system, according to the PNP chief, “encourages a culture of ‘palakasan’ and corruption among its most junior members.”
Gatchalian said a centralized recruitment system will also enable the PNP Task Force on Counter-Intelligence to thoroughly screen all applicants to ensure that only those who are physically, mentally, and morally fit are accepted as police recruits.
“Part of the work of PNP-TFCI is to weed out recruits who have ties with criminal elements or those related with former policemen or soldiers who are known to be engaged in criminal activities like kidnapping, extortion, and hulidap,” said Gatchalian.
PNP chief Purisima deplored the current situation where the PNP has to deal with recruits who did not even know what to do throughout the day in their respective beats and blamed their decentralized recruitment and training for this.
“If these men had properly been schooled and trained in our own PNP school, they would have been activated at once and the State would not have wasted time and taxpayers’ money re-training or re-orienting them, just so they know what to do and where to begin,” Purisima, who became PNP chief in December 2012, quoted in news reports.
Gatchalian maintained that counter-intelligence should be strengthened in the PNP starting from the recruitment of policemen to the time of their active duty status as this will ensure that rogues and misfits are dismissed from the service before they can cause actual damage to the image of the PNP. (Monica Cantilero)
