PNPA graduates waiting for action on appointment, promotions

MANILA, Philippines - Graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) are still awaiting action from police officials and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) two months after they first raised concern on equitable appointment and promotions.

Some PNPA officers and other non-graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) fear that their concern will be forgotten and they will remain being virtual ‘second class citizens’ in the PNP.

“It has been over a month now since President Aquino directed the top DILG and PNP officials to correct the disparity in the promotions and assignments between PMAers and PNPAers,” said a source.

Others voicing the same sentiment are members of the PNPA Alumni Association Inc. (PNPAAAI), the Police Professionals for Righteousness and Integrity Movement (PRIMO) whose members are ROTC graduates, and the Association of Police Officers via Lateral Entry (APOLE), an organization of officers assigned in the technical service.

Concerned PNPA alumni said 325 remaining PMAers occupy all the juicy positions in the PNP and very few of the 3,636 PNPA graduates are assigned to positions “considered to be not in the mainstream of the PNP.”

Last April, President Aquino ordered police officials to correct the situation to prevent the grumbling of non-PMAer officers.

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima have vowed to take immediate action on the concerns.

Roxas directed Deputy Director General Felipe Rojas, deputy chief for administration, to prepare and submit to him a report about the disparity in the promotion and assignment of officers coming from the PNPA, PRIMO and APOLE.

Purisima initially offered to have a ‘boodle fight’ with non-PMAErs as part of efforts to reach out, but the promise did not push through.