President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. will have the final say on who among the full colonels and generals of Philippine National Police (PNP) would go once their courtesy resignation is accepted by the five-man committee that would be tasked to assess and evaluate those who are involved in illegal drugs activities.
But PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. assured that the names that would be submitted to the President would be well-evaluated and screened not only by the Committee of Five but also by the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
Based on the agreed process of the courtesy resignation, the Committee of Five will be the first to conduct assessment and evaluation before its recommendation is submitted to the Napolcom en banc.
Once it reaches the Napolcom, another round of deliberation would be conducted based on the pieces of evidence that would be submitted.
"The output of the Committee of Five would be recommendatory. It's either it would be upheld by the Napolcom or there are some names that would be removed before the submission to the President," said Azurin.
"The final approval is the President because he is the appointing authority," he said.
Azurin said there will be no more names that would be added once the recommendation is submitted to Napolcom.
"At the level of the Napolcom, we expect a thorough deliberation because there are five of us there," said Azurin.
As the Chief PNP, Azurin is an ex-officio member of Napolcom.
Azurin also submitted a courtesy resignation in compliance with the appeal of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos.
97.48%
Exactly 12 days after the call of Abalos, Azurin disclosed that a total of 929 colonels and generals out of 953 have already submitted their courtesy resignation.
There are currently 956 colonels and generals in the PNP but three of them reportedly opted not to file anymore since they will be retiring this month, or before the Jan. 31 deadline of Azurin.
"I am pleased to announce that the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (DPRM) has received the courtesy resignation letters of 929 Police Colonels and Star-rank PNP officers. This number represents 97.48% of all 953 3rd-level police officials expected to heed the call," said Azurin.
"With this overwhelming response, I would like to express my satisfaction, admiration, and respect to all these fine gentlemen for heeding the call for change and reformation in the police organization and for putting the interest of the nation on top and over personal desires and considerations," he added.
As to those who would not file a courtesy resignation, Azurin said: "We will deal with them after January 31."
Name, career on the line
Based on the agreement, those whose courtesy resignation would be forced to retire, regardless of how long they still have before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56.
Azurin then asked the Committee of Five to be fair and objective.
"We respectfully demand that the 5-man members of the committee be objective, fair and circumspect in all their undertakings during the process. We are expecting that they will maintain their impeccable character and integrity so that the result of all their evaluation will be acceptable to everyone," said Azurin.
"Similarly, we appeal that the process will be devoid of personal and political biases," he added.