EDITORIAL - Snail-paced case resolution

From summary execution to ransom kidnapping, drug trafficking and robbery-extortion, members of the Philippine National Police continue to be implicated in criminal activities. Many also face administrative cases that can warrant dismissal from the PNP along with a permanent ban from public office.

Those who face administrative complaints often end up being implicated later in criminal activities. A number of those facing such cases, however, continue to serve in the PNP for many years.

Among the reasons for this problem has to be the snail-paced resolution of administrative cases filed against erring PNP members. The National Police Commission, for example, resolved only recently administrative cases against two erring police officers, which were filed 18 and 20 years ago.

The Napolcom is now aiming for a zero case backlog by the end of 2025, giving itself 60 days from the filing of a complaint to resolve each case. Attaining this objective is uncertain, considering that the Napolcom, by its own count, has thousands of pending cases. This can rival the case backlog of judicial courts, which also accounts for the glacial pace of the justice system.

Still, it is welcome news to see the Napolcom and its mother agency, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, identifying the problem and announcing that something will be done about it, with specific goals meant to be reached.

The DILG had ordered the Napolcom to speed up the resolution of cases amid a series of crimes involving PNP members in the active service. The officers were suspended or ordered dismissed from the service. It turned out, however, that several of them were facing administrative and criminal cases that remained unresolved after many years.

In contrast, action was speedy in the case of former patrolman Francis Steve Fontillas. People inevitably noted that he was quickly found guilty of administrative offenses because he had criticized in his vlogs President Marcos and the PNP over the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Fontillas announced that he was resigning, but the PNP said he had been dismissed from the service for grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a police officer as well as disloyalty to the government.

The PNP and Napolcom must show equally speedy action even in cases that do not involve the President and his officials.