Police chief vows to crack down on ‘rogue cops’

MANILA: A senior officer took over the 220,000-strong Philippine National Police (PNP) with a stern warning especially to “rogue cops” and “scalawags” that, “Your days are numbered and that you will hate me for this.”

Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar aired the warning as part of his back-to-basics policy, including reforms to be undertaken through internal cleansing following his installation as the new PNP vice General Debold Sinas who retired on Saturday.

In his speech, Eleazar vowed to focus on cleansing the police ranks of rogue cops blamed for the PNP’S tatered image by their involvement in such crimes as illegal drugs, kidnap-for-ransom, carnapping and big-time extortion.

“To the remaining hoodlums in uniform, I will make sure that you will hate me because your days are numbered. I will not have second thoughts to remove scalawags who have been giving a bad name to the PNP,” Eleazar said.

To ensure that his goals are achieved, Eleazar unveiled his Intensified Cleanliness Policy which, he pointed out, covers restoring and improving the cleanliness of PNP officers and men as well as that police precincts and stations.

“Police precincts and stations,” he said, “are considered as windows of the PNP and, as such, should be clean at all times.”

At the same time, Eleazar acknowledged that even in the recruitment of new policemen, the “padrino system” (patronage) in which those qualified are bypassed in favour of applicants with strong backers remains a major problem.

However, the PNP is now on the way of eliminating this problem through the use of quick response ( QR) codes in which “no names, no faces, only their qualifications would be the basis of their evaluation,” Eleazar explained.

Two incumbent senators - Panfilo Lacson and Ronald dela Rosa, who also used to head the PNP, welcomed the appointment of Eleazar who is known among his peers as a strict disciplinarian.

Sources doubted whether Eleazar could implement major reforms like ridding the agency of scalawags because he only has six months to act as PNP chief before he is to retire on Nov.13.