Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP), denied on Monday that there is favoritism in the appointment for juicy positions in the organization.
Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa
(Police Regional Office 10 / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“There is no favoritism. The indication there is that half of the regional directors were replaced, including my classmates,” said Gamboa.
The official was reacting to reported grumblings among senior police officials on the selection of officers that would hold what are considered important positions in the PNP.
It was recalled that PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac confirmed that some senior police officers were not happy with the recent massive revamp effected by Gamboa.
During a command conference when the reshuffle was announced, some of the senior police officials reportedly complained – one of them even questioned the authority of Gamboa to implement the revamp since he is just an OIC.
Gamboa’s authority, however, came from the National Police Commission through a resolution. The revamp was also ordered by President Duterte.
But a week after the revamp, more policemen are speaking up on the composition of the revamp.
Last week, a white paper supposedly coming from disgruntled police officials claiming to seek genuine change in the PNP accused the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1986 of lording over the juicy positions in the PNP.
The group also cited two members of PMA Class 1986 who were given juicy positions despite being punished for administrative charges.
The group also accused the current ruling PMA Class 1986 of favoritism in giving positions supposedly for senior officers to junior officers.
They cited a case of two regional director posts given to members of the PMA Class 1991 when there are more qualified senior officers from PMA Classes 1988 to 1990.
But Gamboa was quick to deny allegations of bata-bata system, a police lingo which refers to favoring officials close to ranking senior police officials.
He said at least two of his classmates were also affected by the revamp, referring to Maj. Gen. Amador Corpus and Brig. Gen. Edward Carranza.
Corpus was booted out of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and was designated head of the Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development, while Carranza was assigned to the Logistics Support Service, from being the regional director of Calabarzon regional police, which jurisdiction over the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon.
“Wala naman siguro akong bata-bata (I think to I do not play favorites). As officer-in-charge of the PNP, lahat ng pulis ay bata ko (all policemen are my men). Rest assured that this bata-bata (playing favorites) system no longer exists in the PNP,” said Gamboa.