NEARLY 5,600 policemen nationwide have been dismissed from the service so far during the Duterte administration, of whom 13 percent were involved in illegal drugs.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) said 5,599 policemen were dismissed from July 2016 to March 30, 2022 “after facing administrative charges due to grave offenses.”
In a statement issued on April 16, 2022, Good Friday, the PNP said 714 were involved in illegal drug cases.
The dismissals come amid the PNP’s crackdown on corruption and other offenses.
The 5,599 dismissals signify that around 600 policemen were dismissed in the last 12-month period alone, as the PNP reported last year that 4,974 policemen had been dismissed from July 2016 to March 24, 2021.
Apart from the dismissals, the PNP said the efforts of its Internal Affairs Service as well as of its Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group had resulted in the imposition of other penalties on police personnel charged for less serious offenses.
From July 2016 to March 2022, the PNP said, 10,490 policemen had been suspended, 1,129 had been demoted, while 848 faced forfeiture of their salary.
In addition, 2,475 policemen were reprimanded, 208 were restricted while 286 had their privileges withheld.
As of April 12, the PNP had a workforce of 224,362.
President Rodrigo Duterte rode to victory in the 2016 elections on the back of the campaign promise to rid the country of “corruption, drugs and criminality” in three to six months.
He later expressed dismay at the participation of the police in criminality, prompting then PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to briefly suspend anti-illegal drug operations nationwide on Jan. 30, 2017 to focus on “internal cleansing” to weed out rogue cops. (CTL)