Contenders for PNP chief open to lifestyle check

MANILA, Philippines – It’s up to President Duterte to order a lifestyle check on him and other candidates for the top position of the Philippine National Police (PNP), officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa said yesterday.

“Should he include a lifestyle or any kind of vetting, I suggest and I fully recommend that we leave it up to the Office of the President,” Gamboa told reporters in a chance interview at Camp Crame yesterday.

The two other contenders for the post – PNP deputy for operations Lt. Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan and chief of directorial staff Maj. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar – said in text messages to The STAR they are ready for lifestyle investigation.

It was ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap who urged aspirants to the top PNP post to submit themselves to lifestyle check.

“I want the public to make a distinction between my being a candidate and my being an OIC because every time I open my mouth as an OIC, they can’t help associating it with my being a candidate,” Gamboa said in Filipino.

“I will say this once and again, from here on I will not comment on anything, especially if it involves a question of my being a candidate,” he said.

Meanwhile, spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said the PNP will not let go unpunished police officials and personnel involved in clearing erring colleagues of administrative sanctions in exchange for money and other favors.

“If we need to fire all of those accused, so be it,” he said.

The PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS), in an inventory of cases against erring policemen, found out that only 721 of the 2,431 administrative cases from 2015 to 2017 recommended for sanction had been acted upon.

The figures, according to the IAS, have confirmed its worst fears that there is connivance between PNP officials in position and some rogue policemen.

“It’s very helpful that the IAS is making this kind of observation as this can cleanse our ranks,” Banac said.