MANILA, Philippines — Over 14,000 members of the 190,000-strong Philippine National Police (PNP) have been charged with administrative cases for various offenses since the start of the Duterte administration in 2016.
This is the outcome of the PNP’s “dead serious” internal cleansing campaign against scalawag police officers, PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said in an interview with “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News channel.
A total of 2,367 police officers have been dismissed and another 4,100 police officers suspended.
Out of those who were charged administratively, more than half have been penalized.
Albayalde touted the PNP’s continuing internal cleansing drive as his key accomplishment as head of the PNP. He will reach the retirement age of 56 in November.
“This time we are dead serious. That is why we had transformation 10 years back. Pero naging papel lang (But it was just on paper). Now we do it strictly and by the book and we are dead serious about it,” he said.
Extortion remains the biggest offense for “vulnerable” police officers, the PNP chief said.
However, he claimed that the increase in the salary of police officers has reduced extortion cases.
In explaining the lack of comparative data, Albayalde noted that internal cleansing efforts were not monitored strictly before the Duterte administration.