Probe PNP expenditures, Mar told

MANILA, Philippines — A group advocating for the rights of consumers asked Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II to order an investigation on Philippine National Police Chief Director General Alan Purisima on the more than P3 billion Disbursement Acceleration Program fund earmarked for the PNP.

Perfecto Tagalog, secretary general of the Coalition of Filipino Consumers, said the disbursement came on the heels of mounting complaints about delays in pensions of retired cops and rising crimes in the country.

"This is a wake-up call for Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to conduct its own probe on how PNP Chief Alan Purisima spent the allocation to address the problems besetting the PNP," he said in a statement.

Tagalog said that Roxas, once and for all, should prove his critics wrong that Purisima is "untouchable."

The explanation of PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac that the PNP did not know that the funds they were using came from DAP was "the lamest excuse" any public official could offer, he said.

According to documents from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the PNP is the recipient of allocations from the DAP intended for the hiring of new personnel, procurement of additional equipment including patrol cars and firearms, construction of new police stations, and upgrading of capabilities.

The allocations include P128.2 million for the construction of 20 new police stations and the first tranche of releases intended for the hiring of non-uniformed personnel amounting to P860.7 million.

The biggest DAP allocation received by the PNP was reserved for the modernization program of the agency amounting to P2 billion, listed under item 111 of the DBM document.

This supposedly funded the improvement of mobility, procurement of firearms and communication devices, and repair and rehabilitation of police stations.

The allotment, moreover, is apparently the first tranche in a supposed series of allocations.

Since the Supreme Court recently declared several provisions of the DAP unconstitutional, however, the PNP will not be able to get the funds from the next allocation tranches.

Another huge allocation was listed under item 57 of the DBM document amounting to P115.556 million for the implementation of the P1,000 per capita/personnel for every police station pursuant to Special Provision No. 8 of the 2011 General Appropriations Act.

In item 50, moreover, P8.722 million was earmarked for the construction of the PNP Crisis Action Force Building in Camp Crame "to address various crisis situations."

An allocation of P45 million, meanwhile, was allotted to the Department of Public Works and Highways for the construction of the PNP Maritime Group Training Facility in Mabini, Batangas intended to "enhance the rescue capabilities of the police force."

The P3-billion DAP allocation given by the executive department to the Department of Interior and Local Government, which has jurisdiction over the PNP, is on top of the annual budget received by the police force in 2013 amounting to P72 billion.

Despite the hefty additional allocation to the PNP from DAP, observers note a worsening peace and order situation based on the number and gravity of crime incidents reported daily.