Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered on Thursday, Sept. 9, the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) to start the investigation and summary dismissal proceedings against a police sergeant who was arrested for gun-running and illegal sale of vehicles in Parañaque City.
Police Staff Sergeant Michael Salinas, assigned to the Manila Police District, was among the eight people arrested on September 3 for selling firearms and motor vehicles with spurious documents to a poseur buyer from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
“I assure the public that this policeman will be dismissed as part of our internal cleansing. I have already directed the Internal Affairs Service to initiate summary dismissal proceedings against him,” said Eleazar.
NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Vicente Danao, Jr., said Salinas could be the leader of the group.
Since July 2016, more than 5,000 policemen were already dismissed from the service for various grave offense that include involvement in illegal drugs and other criminal activities.
Eleazar earlier vowed to purge the PNP of scalawag policemen as part of the Intensified Cleanliness Policy (ICP) which he launched when he assumed the top police post.
Part of the ICP is the quick action on reports of policemen involved in illegal activities, aggressive reform in the recruitment system that removed “padrino” system and effective supervision to ensure that the new recruits would not be involved in illegal activities.