VETTING OF POLICE GENERALS NEARS END
THE 5-Man Advisory Group screening the 3rd-level Philippine National Police officers who tendered their courtesy resignation before President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr. last January is nearing the final stretch of its job, PNP chief General Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr. said.
According to the top cop, their group met at the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame around 9 a.m. Thursday to evaluate and screen the remaining list of senior police officers amid their commitment to complete the process before his retirement this coming April 24.
President Marcos Jr. created the group to lead the screening of the senior PNP officers amid the government’s continuing effort to remove policemen with drug links.
“With a unified commitment to end the evaluation process, the five members of the advisory group were all present in the meeting and has exerted all efforts to finish the proceedings,” said PNP Public Information Office chief, Colonel Redrico A. Maranan.
“Today, the advisory group is on the final stretch of the review and evaluation of the documents of 3rd Level Officers of the PNP. After the completion of the proceedings, the committee is bound to prepare their report to the Secretary of the Interior Local Government, Atty. Benjamin Abalos Jr. for his subsequent endorsement to the President,” he added.
Apart from Gen. Azurin, the other members of the 5-Man Advisory Group are retired PNP General-turned-Baguio City Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, retired PNP Gen. Isagani R. Nerez of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Police and Military Affairs, former Defense Secretary Gilbert C. Teodoro and retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Melchor Q. Sadang.
The group was tasked to screen over 900 police generals and colonels amid the PNP’s effort to remove erring police officers who are suspected to be either involved in illegal drug activities or connected with drug syndicates.
Sec. Abalos said the committee members were known for their “unquestionable integrity, credibility, and untainted reputation” and added he is confident that the group shall remain apolitical throughout the process of screening and in the end, penalize only those guilty and involved in the illegal drugs trade.
The panel will forward their recommendation to Sec. Abalos who is also the concurrent chairman of the National Police Commission for further review before it is submitted to President Marcos for his official acceptance or declination of the resignations of PNP’s top brass.
“As they have ended the proceedings for today , the advisory group has conveyed that they will accomplish their tasks efficiently and uncompromisingly without any bias. Until the end of the process, they remained to be a body cloaked with the highest integrity expected of them and have been judicious in all their past undertakings,” Col. Maranan said on Thursday.
