|
By James Konstantin Galvez, Reporter
An official of the National Police Commission (Napolcom)
over the weekend revealed that hundreds of pending administrative
cases filed against members of the Philippine National Police (PNP)
have reportedly “disappeared.”
The incident supports allegations that there are
“case-for-sale” schemes happening within the agency.
The official, who asked not to be named for fear
of retaliation from his superiors, said that officials of the
Inspection, Monitoring and Investigation Service (IMIS) already
reported the “missing cases” to Napolcom Commissioner Celia
Leones.
The IMIS officials claim that around 500 cases
were reported missing.
The folders of the cases were being kept in the
vault of the IMIS office, located at the Napolcom headquarters in
Makati City, before these mysteriously disappeared.
“It just disappeared. Nobody could say how and
when,” said the official.
The source also revealed that the case files,
ranging from simple administrative negligence to grave abuse of
authority, were still being heard and investigated by the IMIS, the
Napolcom department that monitors and investigates police anomalies
and irregularities.
The source said that the IMIS Assistant Director
Norma Pullen, in a meeting on January 28, reported to Leones that
many files were indeed missing and could not be located.
Besides Leones and Pullen, also present during
the meeting were Commissioner Miguel Coronel and directors Myrna
Medina, Isidro Siriban, and Rey Sumanga. Only Manuel Pontanal,
director for legal service and Eduardo Castro, outgoing director of
IMIS, were absent.
“When asked for explanation, some of them gave
alibis that the files were probably still in possession of IMIS
investigators and personnel,” said the source, adding that Leones
was surprised and immediately ordered that the missing files be
located as soon as possible.
No proper disposition of cases
“Too many cases are being negotiated for a fee
in the legal service that is why there is no proper disposition of
cases. [These are] sold out always,” the official revealed.
One of the cases allegedly “sold” was the
sexual harassment complaint filed against policemen of the Jose Abad
Santos Police Station of the Manila Police Department. The policemen
were accused of molesting two minors whom they arrested and detained
without any basis.
“That case was disposed of, the policemen
getting only a slap in the wrist, with not so much as looking into
the complaint properly, the source said.
None of the questioned Napolcom officials could
be reached for comment on Sunday afternoon.
|
