398 wayward cops fired during the past 26 months

By Ben Cal

The internal cleansing of the Philippine National Police (PNP) of wayward cops continues without letup with 398 policemen dismissed from the service, 167 of them drug-related cases during the past 26 months.

Director General Ronald “Bato” M. Dela Rosa, PNP chief, said that 1,614 others meted disciplinary action for administrative cases from 2016 to February 2018 as part of the PNP’s internal reform program.

The muscular PNP chief reiterated his uncompromising stand against misconduct and breach of discipline in the 180,000-strong PNP force.

“As the father of the organization, my heart bleeds when I sign dismissal orders for delinquent policemen. It’s a tough decision, but it had to be done for the sake of the organization.” Dela Rosa said.

Among those dismissed were 151 policemen found positive for drug use while 16 more were involved in drug-related activities. Ninety-one were dismissed for Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL), 10 for kidnapping, 22 for murder, three for rape, six for homicide, two for parricide; and three for illegal arrest/detention.

Twenty-three were dismissed for robbery/extortion; one for graft/ malversation; and 70 others for grave misconduct that stemmed from immorality, dishonesty/estafa.

Since 2016, there were 14,515 administrative cases investigated, wherein, 8,422 cases were resolved.

Presently, there are 6,093 administrative cases pending resolution.