THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has welcomed the proposed launch of Senate investigation on the alleged withholding of the subsistence allowance of the Special Action Force (SAF) worth P58.849 million.
"The PNP assures the availability of the concerned PNP officers to face any investigation. That is actually the purpose of their relief and reassignment to the holding unit to ensure their availability and preclude them from exerting any influence on these investigations," PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao said.
On April 13, former and active members of the elite SAF filed charges of malversation of public funds, plunder and administrative complaints for grave misconduct against former SAF chief Director Benjamin Lusad for failure to distribute 24 months worth of their daily additional subsistence allowance (ASA).
Other respondents in the complaint were Lusad's former budget and fiscal officers Senior Superintendent Andre Dizon, Senior Police Officer 2 Maila Bustamante and Senior Police Officer 1 Jack James Irica.
Due to the dangerous nature of their job, all SAF personnel are entitled to receive an additional daily subsistence allowance of P30 per day or P900 a month.
The ASA is given on top of the P60 regular subsistence allowance of a policeman.
The complainants said that during Lusad’s leadership at the SAF from July 2016 to January 2018, their ASA for the months of January 2016 and January to July 2017 were the only ones given to them.
PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa and current SAF director Noli Talino however confirmed the alleged failure to distribute the funds.
Talino said Dizon has already returned the P37 million in two tranches — P10 million was returned on April 12, a day before the filing of charges, while P27 million was given on April 16 although it was unclear yet where the money came from.
He said several SAF troopers have already received part of their ASA.
On Tuesday, Lusad, Dizon, Bustamante and Irica were relieved from their posts pending investigation.
Lusad was the director of the PNP Directorate for Integrated Police Operations (DIPO) in Southern Luzon (SL) while Dizon was the DIPO-SL administrative and resource management division chief.
Bustamante and Irica were both SAF finance officers.
On Wednesday, former PNP chief now Senator Panfilo Lacson filed Resolution 712 seeking an investigation into the issue that he said has demoralized members of the SAF.
“We cannot allow, yet again, another injustice to be committed against our heroes in uniform who are in the forefront of our fight against the ills of terrorism and criminality, lest we risk demoralization within their ranks. Thus the need to probe into the said allegations,” he said. (SunStar Philippines)