Due to lack of men “Policing” cops now a challenge

CEBU, Philippines — Policing its own ranks to completely get rid of scalawags is becoming quite a challenge, according to the Police Regional Office-7.

PRO-7 spokesman Superintendent Reyman Tolentin said the challenge comes from the lack of police officers to adjudicate and handle the various administrative cases filed against erring policemen, aside from their regular police duties.

Based on the latest number PRO-7 is currently dealing with 16 different administrative cases.

However, he guaranteed that efforts are underway to address the issue on the lack of personnel, in order to expedite cases.

“It’s really a big challenge to get rid of these scalawags…there are factors to consider, one is lack of officers to handle the case, so others will also turn down the case because of some personal reasons, so we are addressing that issue to really hasten the adjudication of admin cases,” Tolentin said.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in his speech during his recent visit to Cebu that there are still policemen in Cebu who are involved in illegal activities, and warned them as well that they will be “first to go.”

Tolentin said that there is no such thing as a perfect organization, and said that efforts to purge the organization are in progress.

“There is no perfect organization so our efforts against scalawag police are in place, in fact, police officers have been arrested and charged in court to really show that we are serious in this matters, because in the fight against illegal drugs we really need people who are sincere and clean, so we cannot afford to destroy our efforts,” he said.

Tolentin assured they will double their efforts in internal cleansing, especially as Central Visayas is still considered a hotbed for the illegal drug business in the country.

Nevertheless, he mentioned that there also good policemen in the organization and that the mistake of one person should not generalize the efforts of the rest of the organization.

To recall, last April 24, a 47-year-old businesswoman was arrested after she allegedly attempted to bribe Police Officer 1 Nixon Miranda, a policeman assigned to the Parian Police Station, in exchange for the release of a drug suspect arrested in a legitimate drug operation. — BRP (FREEMAN)