IAS laments culture of impunity in PNP

MANILA, Philippines — Corrupt officials and personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been taking advantage of a scheme that allows rogue police officers with administrative sanctions to evade penalties for a fee.

This was the assessment by the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS) after it conducted an inventory of its resolutions on erring policemen.

A four-page document from the IAS revealed that from 2015 to 2017, the investigating body recommended penalties for 2,431 administrative cases.

However, only 721 or 29.65 percent of the cases had their resolutions implemented while 1,710 were not acted upon.

What is alarming, according to the IAS, is that of the 567 cases with a recommendation for dismissal of the police officers, only 159 or 28.04 percent were implemented.

“The statistical totals of the submitted monitoring reports seem to confirm the worst fears of connivance between these rogue cops and some corrupt PNP officials/rank and file personnel who coddle the former for personal reasons or allow them to escape justice for a fee,” the document read.

The IAS did give go into detail on the amount of money involved in the scheme.

The IAS surmised the culture of impunity appears to have set in the police force that has been implementing President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.

“Most of its erring personnel are not being disciplined promptly as required. Indeed, justice delayed is justice denied,” the IAS document read.

These activities of police scalawags are among the reasons why IAS inspector general Alfegar Triambulo is asking Congress to amend Republic Act 8551, or the PNP Reform and Reorganization Act, to make IAS an independent body.

Under the current setup, the PNP chief has direct supervision over the IAS, which means all their recommendations are subject to automatic review.