A TOTAL of 716 Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel have been dismissed from the service after they were found to have been involved in illegal drugs.
The dismissals involved personnel whose administrative cases had been resolved from July 2016 to May 4, 2022.
PNP Officer-In-Charge Police Lt. Gen Vicente Danao Jr. released the information on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
Danao said of the 716 erring PNP personnel, 527 had been dismissed nationwide for taking illegal drugs themselves while 189 were dismissed for their involvement in other drug-related cases.
He said of the 527 illegal drug takers, 10 were police commissioned officers, 502 were police non-commissioned officers while 15 were non-uniformed personnel.
As for the 189 dismissed for involvement in other drug-related cases, 11 were police commissioned officers, 177 were police non-commissioned officers, while one was a non-uniformed personnel.
However, the 716 dismissed over drug-related cases accounted for just three percent of the 21,306 PNP personnel who had been subjected to administrative cases for various infractions over the six-year period, he said.
Citing data from the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, Danao said of the 21,306 PNP personnel, 5,652 had been dismissed from the service, 1,150 demoted, 10,650 suspended, 853 punished with salary forfeiture, 2,491 reprimanded, 222 restricted to quarters and 288 meted withheld privileges.
Danao said this showed that the PNP does not condone the participation of any of its members in illegal activities.
He did not detail what the offenses of the other police personnel were, but the PNP had previously announced a crackdown on corruption and other offenses.
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.