Lacson to PNP: End illegal data gathering

MANILA, Philippines — The denial by the Philippine National Police leadership that the PNP was engaged in illegal data gathering in some barangays using development funds of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) should put an end to such a practice, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

Lacson, who chairs the Senate committee on national defense and security, issued the statement in response to the PNP’s denial that it authorized “census” activities in some barangays using NTF-ELCAC funds, which some senators have repeatedly insisted could have instead been used as emergency cash aid for the poor and workers in pandemic-hit sectors.

“The PNP’s denial should put a stop to the illegal data gathering activities on 30 percent of the country’s local population. As the Senate’s principal sponsor of the NTF-ELCAC budget, I cannot simply disregard a pattern of such reports coming from their own field commanders,” Lacson, who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001, said on Twitter.

On Friday, the PNP issued a statement “categorically and vehemently” denying that it misused the NTF-ELCAC funds by using it to conduct a census in different barangays nationwide.  

It said it is implementing an “intensified cleanliness policy,” including “cleanliness in the community,” while deepening police-community relations programs to protect the community, especially the youth, “from falling prey to syndicates and being recruited by communist fronts.”