MANILA, Philippines - The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has dismissed from service 41 of at least 531 policemen who snubbed court hearings, actions that led to the dismissal of 599 drug cases in Metro Manila over the past five years.
Records obtained by The Star showed that the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) topped the list with 24 dismissed policemen while the Manila Police District (MPD) has seven.
The Southern Police District (SPD) has four while the Eastern Police (EPD) and Northern Police District (NPD) have three each.
Metro police director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said he expects the number of dismissed policemen to rise as the NCRPO has started strictly monitoring drug cases in court, especially those involving big-time drug pushers.
“We are coordinating with various courts in Metro Manila to monitor the cases we filed against drug pushers and users. We are warning our cops that failure to attend court hearings is a dismissable offense,” said Rosales in an interview.
He said ridding the NCRPO of scalawag policemen is part of the transformation program of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa.
Rosales said they are not only closely monitoring the non-appearance of policemen in court hearings but also administrative and criminal violations like fabrication or planting of evidence, malicious prosecution, falsification of documents, and bungling of drug cases.
Records of the Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) showed that the MPD has the biggest number of drug cases dismissed due to the non-appearance of policemen in court in a five-year period with 274 and closely followed by the QCPD with 201. The SPD has 48, EPD with 45 and NPD at 31.
The MPD again topped the number of personnel who failed to attend court hearings with 274 and followed by the QCPD with 190. The SPD has 40, EPD at 45 and the NPD with 29.
Aside from 41 dismissed policemen, 195 others were facing summary dismissal proceedings, 48 under pre-charge evaluation, three reprimanded, two with their salaries forfeited, three suspended, and 11 dropped from the rolls.
A total of 152 cases are still under investigation, 21 of the policemen retired from the service and two resigned. Fourteen of the policemen have died.
The AIDSOTF records showed that 26 of the cases were dropped or closed while five were exonerated and five other cases were dismissed.
According to Rosales, policemen who failed to attend court hearings despite being issued summons, were allowed to explain their side on the issue.
However, once their explanation was found without merit, they would be given a second chance or a reinvestigation to clear themselves and evade punishment.
“But if they failed to show additional evidence other than what they have submitted earlier, we have no recourse but to recommend their dismissal from the police service,” Rosales said.