Three police applicants in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region were disqualified while 54 others were placed under investigation for allegedly submitting a fake swab test result which is a requirement for the recruitment process of more than 17,000 policemen for this year.
Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the three applicants will also be slapped with criminal charges after the RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) as part of the documents needed for application to fill out the vacant slots allocated for the Police Regional Office-BAR.
A total of 54 others applicants are currently under investigation and could suffer the same fate as that of the three. All of them are from Lanao del Sur.
Eleazar said they found out about the anomaly when a team led from the PNP Recruitment and Selection Service Unit, went to the PRO-BAR to oversee the ongoing recruitment system. This after reports disclosed of anomalous recruitment process in the region in the past.
“I have already issued an order to delist the names of all the applicants who deliberately submitted fake RT-PCR tests in PRO-BAR. This order extends to other PROs and PNP units to do the same. We will not give a second chance for this year’s recruitment to those who would dare bastardize our recruitment process,” said Eleazar.
"If we would allow these applicants to continue, then it will send a very wrong message that what they did is okay. For all we know, these applicants would end up engaging in planting of evidence once they become policemen because they entered the PNP in an irregular way," he added.
Based on the initial result of the investigation, some of these applicants admitted they did not indeed undergo swab test but still submitted the fake document. They said they paid P500 for the fake RT-PCR result.
On the other hand, some of the applicants were subjected to swab test but unaware that the RT-PCR results they submitted are fake.
Eleazar said he had already ordered a thorough investigation on the medical facility which issued the fake RT-PCR results to the police applicants. He added that the PNP-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) to conduct operation against those who are involved in producing and selling of fake RT-PCR in the region.
“We are now conducting investigation to identify all those involved in this, including the personnel of the medical facility which issued the fake RT-PCR results and the signatories in the falsified document, and my instruction is to charge and arrest them in order to prevent them from duping other people," said Eleazar.
The aggressive reform in the PNP Recruitment System is a long-term internal cleansing measure initiated by PGen Eleazar under the Intensified Cleanliness Pollicy when he assumed the top post in May 8 this year in a move to demolish the culture of corruption and padrino system (using influential backers) in the PNP recruitment system.
He said the anomalous recruitment system is one of the major roots of the culture of abuse and wrongdoings among a few members of the PNP who entered the police service in irregular ways.
“Our recruitment process under CORES (Comprehensive Online Recruitment Encrypting System ) works on a concept of honesty, integrity and trust on the system. If you cannot respect our recruitment process, then you have no place in our organization,” said PGen Eleazar
The CORES uses a QR Code System for all PNP applicants to ensure that the entry of those who want to be policemen would be purely based on qualifications. More than 17,000 policemen will be recruited this year.