Lacson to probe PNP's P10-B modernization program

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Panfilo Lacson wants to look into the entire procurement process of the Philippine National Police (PNP), particularly on transactions related to the modernization program, in the wake of the investigation on the allegedly anomalous purchase of helicopters during the past administration.

Lacson, a former PNP chief, said that the sale of used choppers allegedly by the husband of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the PNP was not the only questionable transaction uncovered in the police service.

In his Senate Resolution 565, Lacson cited the purchase of alleged overpriced and unusable rubber boats and outboard engines worth P131.5 million, the overpriced purchase of P92.6 million worth of patrol boats and the over P300 million anomaly in the repair of V150 Armored Personnel Carriers.

He said all of these transactions were done during the previous administration as part of the PNP’s 5-year, P10 billion modernization program, which started in 2008.

The program involved the allocation of P2 billion a year for the PNP for the purchase of weapons and gadgets that are at par with the technological advancements in the field.

Lacson said that the modernization program apparently did not result in actual improvements in the capabilities of the PNP.

He cited the Aug. 23, 2010 hostage-taking crisis at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila where eight Hong Kong tourists as well as the hostage-taker were killed after the bungled police rescue operations “because of their apparent ill-preparedness, inability and lack of proper equipment which arguably contributed to the bloody aftermath of the incident.”

The suspicions about the misuse of the funds of the PNP for its modernization program were reinforced by the revelation made by Lacson about the purchase of used light police operational helicopters under the guise of being brand new.

The ongoing probe by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee into the transaction revealed that former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo was the real owner of the secondhand helicopters that were passed off as brand new when purchased by the police.

“There is also a need to investigate how the PNP utilize their modernization funds in the light of several irregularities in their purchase of various equipment,” Lacson said in his resolution.

“There is a pattern of anomalies and irregularities in the procurement processes of the PNP, especially in the implementation of the multi-billion peso modernization program of the PNP, which must be looked into in order to determine whether this pattern of anomalies and irregularities in the procurement processes is now an institutionalized mode in the PNP,” he added.

Lacson said the PNP leadership must explain how the modernization program is being implemented now in the wake of past anomalies.

“There is a need to determine what corrective and remedial measures are necessary to prevent these anomalies from being repeated and institute reforms to strengthen the procurement laws,” he said.

Lacson said that the Blue Ribbon committee, composed of all senators, should conduct the probe into the modernization program and procurement process of the PNP.

Mancao urges Lacson to stop fabrication

Meanwhile, former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao had urged Sen. Lacson to stop fabricating stories about the supposed P150-million check that was deposited in his bank account which the senator insinuated was an alleged fee to implicate Lacson in the murders of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

“If he (Lacson) won’t stop spreading lies about that check, I will also spill the beans on him. He wants me to do that? I know the senator very well, he should remember that,” said Mancao of Lacson, who was his boss in the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

Mancao said that he is not afraid of Lacson and that it should be the senator who should fear him if he lets out the skeletons in the latter’s closet. – With Edith Regalado