PNP chief: Body cam procurement fully accounted for
MANILA, Philippines — Following Sen. Manny Pacquiao's allegations of corruption in numerous government agencies, the chief of the Philippine National Police said that his agency's procurement of hundreds of millions of pesos worth of body cameras was "fully-accounted" for.
In a statement sent to reporters, Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, said that his office was coordinating with Pacquiao to "verify if he indeed mentioned the PNP in his alleged list" of corrupt government agencies through the procurement of the body cameras.
"The money allocated by Congress for its purchase has been fully accounted for and in fact, the PNP has even saved more than P45 million in this transaction and the money saved has been allocated for the purchase of high-definition CCTVs that will be used in our operation. against insurgency and terrorism," Eleazar said in Filipino.
"The fund that we saved from the procurement of the body cameras, amounting to a total of P45,111,006.28, was combined with the P19,429,717.08 savings from the recent improvement of the PNP Command Center, to procure a CCTV Rapid Deployment System for around P60 million."
READ: Whatever happened to: Body cameras for the Philippine National Police
This comes after Sen. Manny Pacquiao alleged in an online media briefing Saturday afternoon that P14 billion worth of social amelioration program funds were allocated by the DSWD to 1.8 million beneficiaries to be transferred through the e-wallet app Starpay.
The senator did not actually mention the Philippine National Police among the allegedly corrupt agencies, which included the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Energy, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The much-delayed CCTV Rapid Deployment System is set to be used in counter-terrorism operations anywhere in the country. The project went through four PNP chiefs before the cameras were actually procured.
It is composed of 10 deployable CCTVs with Artificial Intelligence, a video management system, 10 CCTV mobile trailers, and 10 generators. Each camera of the CCTV Rapid Deployment System can be loaded with 200 pictures of wanted criminals and terrorists.
In a statement issued Saturday, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission claimed that it was not corruption that doubled during President Rodrigo Duterte's term, but efforts to stop corruption.
"[President Duterte] has consistently remained committed to his promise to eradicate corruption by publicly shaming dishonest government officials and workers to humiliate them and discourage others from engaging in corrupt activities,” PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said.
He did not present any data or figures to substantiate his claim.
"If indeed Sen. Pacquiao said that there was corruption in the procurement of bodycams, we would appreciate if he could provide us the details and I assure him that we would look into it," Eleazar also said.
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