PNP hits US report on 'ineffective' internal cleansing program
MANILA, Philippines — The chief of the Philippine National Police on Monday pushed back against the US State Department's report claiming that its internal cleansing program was ineffective.
This comes after the US Department of State said that it received “credible reports that members of the security forces committed numerous abuses” in its 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices.
While the report acknowledged the internal cleansing program's supposed statistics, it also pointed to a number of incidents of impunity within the police organization, which it said rendered the program "largely ineffective."
At a press conference Monday morning, Police Gen. Dionardo Carlos said that the claim was "very sweeping," pointing to the numbers of the program so far.
"How come we already have 5,000 policemen that were already dismissed for various infractions? How come we see that the pride and morale of the police is high? How come they are delivering over the years?" he said in mixed Filipino and English.
READ: 'Impunity remained': US report shows drug-related killings continue in Philippines
Carlos said that the internal discipline campaign had a "preventive, punitive, and restorative" approach to dirty cops in the police organization. "If you'll be that sweeping, show us the proof that it's not effective," Carlos also said.
The PNP chief went on to claim that the organization has recorded "many police officers who have recovered" after they committed "minor infractions."
"Maybe they were just exposed to wrong environments," he said. "If they can still change, we give them an opportunity to get back up...I always say if you make a mistake or if you fall, you don't stay on the ground. Stand up and accept what you have done."
He also claimed that the PNP's chaplain service was going out to do pastoral visits to "strengthen the spiritual and moral fiber" of police personnel.
Data from July 2016-March 2022 shows that 1,129 were demoted, 10,490 were suspended, 848 faced forfeiture of salary, 2,475 were reprimanded, 208 were restricted and privileges were withheld for 286 personnel.
In a statement over the weekend, the PNP said it "opposed" the findings of the US State Department, pointing to what it said was the "conscious efforts" of its Internal Affairs Service and Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group.
"Though we are not completely disregarding this report, the PNP would like to respond to it with all the significant accomplishments of IAS...It will be unfair for the PNP to be regarded as an organization that tolerates impunity and human rights abuses," it said.
Numbers are there, but has 'internal cleansing' resulted in better safeguarding of human rights in the PNP?
While the internal cleansing has supposedly booted thousands of dirty cops, the country's Commission on Human Rights has urged the PNP to "translate commitments of internal cleansing into actual reduction of cases of human rights violations on the ground."
"We urge the government to address these violations with the larger view that the protection of human rights is primarily a State obligation," the CHR said after a Quezon City cop infamously shot and murdered a 52-year-old in June 2021.
Rights groups say it's not just about stacking up numbers — rights group Karapatan for instance pointed to the pattern of cops still getting away with cases of abuse in the PNP organization.
"Accountability should not just be a photo op or a press release," said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
"Paying lip service to accountability, however, is not and would never be justice, and the first urgent step towards genuine justice is to end all forms of police violence and brutality, and to stop the killings in the Philippines now,” she added.
Over the coronavirus pandemic, cases of police brutality have also piled up, many of which have gone unacknowledged.
Critics have hit the Duterte government's failure to hold abusive police officers accountable, blaming killings linked to the police on public statements from the president himself encouraging violence and killing.
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Police leadership has repeatedly denied or minimized allegations of abuse and misconduct—with one police chief saying there was "no such thing" as extrajudicial killings—while also brushing off what critics say is a culture that leads to such instances of abuse.
As PNP spokesperson in 2017, Carlos himself often claimed that cops would only kill in self-defense. The administration's so-called war on drugs has a death toll of over 6,100 killings linked to the police now according to the government's own data.
"Local and international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described widespread impunity for killings. There were no prosecutions or convictions for extrajudicial killings in the year to October and three since the start of the drug war in 2016," the US State Department said in its report.
"Human rights groups continued to express concern about abuses committed by the national police and other security forces and noted little progress in reforms aimed at improving investigations and prosecutions of suspected human rights violations."
— with a report from Patricia Lourdes Viray
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