Retired police general Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar bowed out of service with a big jump in the trust and approval ratings of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Starting with 25th in ranking in approval rating and 22nd in trust rating in the survey conducted for all government agencies on May this year, Eleazar said that the PNP is now 7th in ranking in trust rating and 8th in approval rating based on the survey conducted last month by Publicus Asia.
“Nag-umpisa tayo sa isang hamon na maibalik ang tiwala at respeto ng ating mga kababayan sa kanilang kapulisan (we started with a big challenge for winning back the trust and respect of the people to their police). Today, we claim the victory from that almost impossible task of doing it in just six months because from the 25th ranking in approval rating and 22nd ranking in trust rating before, we are now ranked 7th in the trust rating and 8th in approval rating of all government agencies based on the survey conducted last month,” said Eleazar in his speech.
Based on the briefer by the PNP on Eleazar’s speech, the 1st quarter survey for 2021 conducted in March revealed that the PNP ranked 25th in approval rating and 22nd in trust rating.
In a survey conducted in July, or two months after Eleazar took over the PNP leadership, the PNP’s ranking improved to 19th in approval rating and 18th in trust rating.
In last month’s survey, the PNP jumped to 7th in trust rating and 8th in approval rating.
“As I bow out service today after serving 38 years, I will take with me the good memories of how, as your Chief PNP in the last six months, the men and women of the Philippine National Police believed in me and supported me in the main goal of continuously bringing back the integrity and dignity of the PNP,” said Eleazar.
In his opening speech, Eleazar insinuated that the length of tour of duty has nothing to do with the success in the implementation of the reform programs.
He explained later that when he assumed the top PNP post, the main challenge is to regain the trust and confidence of the people amid harsh and sustained criticisms of the police organization.
“The success of a victorious battle is not measured by how long the fighting lasts, it is measured by how each person on the ground is inspired to believe that the battleplan works in order for them to unite and achieve victory in the quickest possible time,” he said.
“The biggest challenge that I dealt with in my more than three decades in the police service was to implement drastic reforms on a nationwide scope in just a short period of time— six months to be exact. That is why since Day One of my assumption as the 26th Chief of the Philippine National Police, I made sure that every day was a day of hard work, and that everyday must be police service day,” he said.
Drug war review
Aside from improving the image of the PNP, Eleazar said was also praised for opening the drug war documents to the Department of Justice.
A memorandum of agreement was recently signed between the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation to start the case build-up against 154 cops who were accused of abuses in the conduct of drug war.
The DOJ is set to review all the drug war documents involving more than 6,000 deaths in the anti-drug operations since July 2016.
“This is a bitter pill to swallow but decisions have to be made because what is at stake here is the integrity and the dignity of the Philippine National Police in the pursuit of its mandate of serving and protecting the Filipino people,” said Eleazar.
“This is not the first time for us to encounter this kind of serious challenges to the organization. But just like all the challenges we have faced in the past, I am confident that we will come out stronger after this. This will not discourage us, and in fact, will further motivate us to continuously prove that we are a reliable, trustworthy and professional police organization,” he added.
Body-worn cameras
Eleazar was also credited for initiating full transparency and accountability in the conduct of drug war by facilitating the distribution of almost 3,00) body-worn cameras to police units across the country.
But before the cameras were used, he initiated the coordination with the Supreme Court to come up with a guideline on their use in order to spare policemen from legal issues involving privacy, as well as other technicalities that may be used to junk cases that would be filed by the police.
Coordination protocol
One of the most notable accomplishments of Eleazar was when he initiated the drafting of the memoramdum of agreement with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) following the deadly misencounter between Quezon City policemen and PDEA agents in February this year.
The agreement was signed in July and was hailed by PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva as the first time that PNP and PDEA came up with coordination protocol after 20 years of working together in anti-illegal drugs operations.
Multi-billion shabu
In September this year, the coordination protocol was put to test and yielded positive result as joint PNP and PDEA operation resulted in the confiscation of more than P6 billion worth of shabu in just two days of operations in Zambales, Bataan and Cavite.
The operation in Zambales resulted in the death of the main contact of an international drug syndicate in the country while the operation in Cavite led to the death of the main distributor of shabu in Metro Manila and nearby provinces and Mindanao.
Crime drop
A few months after he assumed the top PNP post, the index crime in the country was down by 64 percent in the past five years. Index crimes refers to murder, homicide, rape, physical injuries, theft, robbery and carnapping.
Eleazar said the PNP was able to reduce it further to 68 percent as of last month.
All praises
During the change of command on Friday, Nov. 12, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año who presided over the turnover ceremony was all praises for Eleazar for working hard and getting positive results in just six months of his tour of duty as Chief PNP.
Newly-installed PNP chief Lt. Gen. Dionardo Carlos, for his part, also lauded the accomplishments of his predecessor.