Stronger PNP leadership needed to boost anti-crime efforts, advocates say

By ELIZABETH MARCELO, GMA News

Published September 17, 2014 4:51pm

The Philippine National Police needs to have a stronger and more focused leadership to solve the recent spate of high-profile crimes, many of them involving law enforcers, two anti-crime advocates said Wednesday.

“We believe in the basic rule of leadership by example," said Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chair Dante Jimenez in a telephone interview on the News To Go program.

Meanwhile, former Interior Sec. Rafael Alunan said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II —as the chairman of the National Police Commission (Napolcom)— has the responsibility of ensuring that the PNP leadership was disciplining its ranks and performing its function of protecting the people and enforcing the law.

“Everything boils down to leadership. Maliwanag naman ang duties and responsibilities ng bawat opisyal ng Napolcom at PNP. It's a question of performing their duties. The immediate supervisor on top must make sure that his people are doing their jobs,” Alunan said in an interview on the same program on GMA News TV.

The PNP has been embroiled in controversy after several police officers were recently implicated in various criminal cases.

Among these cases are the robbery-extortion incident along EDSA involving eight police officers of the La Loma Police Station in Quezon City; the killing of car racing champion Enzo Pastor, in which the alleged gunman is a police officer; the killing of a high-ranking police officer in Quezon City allegedly masterminded by some policemen; the shooting incident in a school in Pangasinan in which the shooter is a policeman; and the “wheel of torture” incident in Biñan, Laguna provincial jail allegedly involving 10 policemen.

Crime and politics

Jimenez criticized Roxas, the Liberal Party's reported standard bearer in the 2016 presidential elections, for allegedly using the campaign against crime to advance his political ambitions.

"The secretary of DILG has lost ang kanyang direction because nagagamit ang fight in crime with politics,” said Jimenez, citing as an example the Pastor murder case. The alleged gunman, Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel, retracted his confession a few days after his arrest by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the PNP.

“Nakakalungkot dito, mabubuo na sana ng mga NBI agents ang kaso, pero inovertake-an niya (Roxas) at inuna ang presscon,” Jimenez said. “Bakit? Kasi high-profile case yan... ano ngayon ang nangyari? Nag-retract. Hilaw ang investigation. Back to zero na naman.”

GMA News Online sought a reaction from Roxas, but he was not answering calls and text messages.

PNP transformation

On a positive note, Alunan said the PNP is currently undergoing a transformation process initiated by the non-government policy organization Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), headed by economist and former cabinet secretary Jess Estanislao.

“The good news is that the PNP, for the past six years, have been quietly going through a transformation program. This is a long-term transformation program which spans 30 years... The PNP is slowly transforming itself in a very committed manner and this much I can say because I am also involved in this transformation process,” Alunan said.

However, he stressed that the success of the PNP's transformation still depended on the PNP and DILG leadership.

“At the end of the day, the current DILG Secretary and chairman of Napolcom should seize the moment and review what’s been happening under his watch ever since he took over and then see where the gaps are,” Alunan said.

Alunan challenged Roxas to improve his performance if he intended to seek higher office in 2016.

“There will always be good cops and bad cops and the numbers rise and fall depending on who is managing them... And If they want to take over in 2016 onwards, people will look at their performance today. If there is no performance, if there is lack of management and leadership, then, why will they be elected?” Alunan said. —NB/YA, GMA News

Tags: manuelroxasii, departmentofinteriorandlocalgovernment, philippinenationalpolice