A total of 4,591 policemen were dismissed from the service for involvement in various serious offenses that include involvement in illegal drugs trade, the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported on Monday.
PNP chief Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan said the dismissed policemen were part of the 15,768 errant cops who were penalized for various offenses since 2016 as part of the internal cleansing in the police organization.
“Among those dismissed from service, 549 were for drug-related cases comprising 410 who tested positive for drug use and 139 for involvement in illegal drug activities,” said Cascolan in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
Aside from illegal drugs, other cases involving the policemen were grave misconduct, serious neglect of duty, serious irregularity, malversation, dishonesty, and graft and corruption.
Cascolan said a total of 7,888 were suspended and 846 cops were demoted in rank.
Another 608 errant personnel, according to the PNP Chief, were penalized with forfeiture of salary, 119 were restricted to quarters, and privileges of 205 others were withheld.
“The PNP Internal Cleansing Program doesn’t stop there, rather it will continue to be implemented with greater zeal and commitment in the best interest of transparency and accountability in public service,” he said.
The PNP has been an aggressive internal cleansing since July 2016, the focus are those involved in illegal drugs trade. But despite the program, a lot of policemen were still arrested in the past four years, mostly due to extortion racket from drug suspects.
The biggest black eye on the PNP’s anti-drug war campaign was when some of its personnel were implicated in the kidnap-slay of South Korean executive Jee Ick Joo who was arrested under the guise of anti-drugs operations but was strangled to death at Camp Crame. The erring cops allegedly demanded at least P5 million from his family although he was already killed and his remains had been cremated.
Hundreds of policemen are also in the narcolist and are currently being reviewed by the PNP leadership.