Lacson sees 'something wrong' with PNP recruitment program

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson has speculated there must be "something wrong" with the Philippine National Police's (PNP) recruitment program amid the alleged involvement of neophyte cops in the illegal drug trade.

 

Speaking to PNP Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa on Tuesday during the second day of the Senate inquiry into the extra-judicial killings, Lacson asked why most of the PNP personnel suspected to be involved in the narcotics trade were younger, new police officers.

 

"Our suspects (police) from Antipolo and Pasay are PO1, PO2 police officers, right? So there must be something wrong with the recruitment program if not, probably the basic training given to new recruits, since the younger police are involved," Lacson said.

 

He was referring to police officers who allegedly killed suspected drug pushers in two separate incidents in the cities of Antipolo and Pasay last month.

 

The senator, a former PNP chief himself, meanwhile asked Dela Rosa how recruitment, training and supervisory measures were done for new police.

 

Dela Rosa explained the PNP was the only police agency in the world that did not train their own police officers since training was conducted by a separate agency — the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC).

 

The PNP chief meanwhile asked Lacson to recommend that control over training be returned to PNP.

 

Lacson, Chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said that he would attend to it immediately.

 

In 2014, Sen. Grace Poe, then Chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, filed Senate Bill 2363 or the PNP Reorganization and Modernization Act of 2014 that seeks to transfer supervision of police training to PNP.