Arroyo forms PNP reform commission

President Arroyo announced yesterday the formation of a commission to revamp the Philippine National Police (PNP) after it was blamed for the embarrassing escape of self-confessed Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi.

"I am sure they (PNP) welcome a comprehensive reform that will cure the organization not only of failures of the scale of the Al-Ghozi escape, but of the daily devils, that are the scale of the kotong (bribe-taking) cops," the President said.

She stopped short of sacking the entire police leadership outright, as mentioned in an official draft of the speech made available earlier yesterday.

Based on the draft, Mrs. Arroyo was to have declared all national police leadership positions "vacant."

The President was kept in the dark for several hours after the escape of Al-Ghozi and Abu Sayyaf bomb expert Abdul Mukhim Edris and member Omar Opik Lasal, also known as Meram Abante, from their high-security detention cell at the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame last July 14.

The Abu Sayyaf has been branded a terrorist group by Manila and Washington and Al-Ghozi was the most senior member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group to be arrested.

Al-Ghozi’s escape was made public just after the President’s meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard to discuss major counter-terror initiatives.

There was a growing clamor for the sacking of PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. after Al-Ghozi’s escape even as the Indonesian bomber was merely one of several high-profile figures to slip out of the police headquarters jail.

The commission will implement comprehensive reform within the PNP, which was badly maligned by the escape of Al-Ghozi, the President said.

Al-Ghozi’s escape has prompted a region-wide security alert for fear of a fresh attack similar to the bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that left 202 dead last Oct. 12.

Ebdane said the PNP welcomes the President’s initiative, adding that it will further strengthen the country’s premier law enforcement agency.

In her address, the President thanked the PNP for its "solid support" for her when she faced a mutiny Sunday mounted by 296 disgruntled junior officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who had called themselves the Magdalo group after the minority faction in the Katipunan led by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.

The President earlier formed an independent, three-man fact-finding commission led by former justice secretary Sedfrey Ordoñez to look into the Al-Ghozi escape amid allegations of corruption in the PNP.

A matching reform commission for the AFP will be created to look into the allegations of corruption made by the mutinous soldiers Sunday.

Edited out of the SONA draft were portions in which the Chief Executive explained her rejection of Ebdane’s verbal offer to resign. "I declined to accept it because I still believe he is the best man to return the three escaped terrorists to captivity to face the justice they richly deserve. A failure of (that) scale represents not the shortcomings of one man with an outstanding track record, but a serious malaise in the institution itself."

Also taken out of the President’s speech was a statement saying the government will "subject all police officers to a lifestyle check. All those who fail the lifestyle check will go the way of the recent BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) and customs indictees."

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the President "really changes her speech, even at the last moment." He cited five previous SONA drafts , which were all changed, especially after Sunday’s mutiny.

Reacting to the President’s commendation of the PNP for its solid support for the administration in the failed Makati City mutiny Sunday, Ebdane said the officers and men of the PNP are honored.

"All of us in the PNP are honored (by) President Arroyo’s appreciation of our humble efforts," he said.

A majority of the PNP’s 114,000 officers and personnel stood united behind the chain of command Sunday in the face of the mutiny.

The 22-hour standoff ended without bloodshed before midnight Sunday, even as the rebel soldiers aired grievances of corruption in the military and the administration.

Three hours before delivering her speech, the President was with Ebdane, PNP anti-drug task force chief Deputy Director Edgar Aglipay and PNP Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group chief Director Eduardo Matillano, who accompanied her at the latest shabu laboratory bust at Marina Bay Homes along the Manila Bay reclamation area.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, for his part, said the creation of the PNP Reform Commission is unnecessary. "What is needed is leadership by good example. Honest and competent leadership is noticed and followed down the line."

Lacson, who served as PNP chief during the administration of President Joseph Estrada, said he carried sweeping reforms, including a drastic reduction in kotong and criminal activities, in 14 months. — Marichu Villanueva, Jaime Laude, Jess Diaz, AFP