PNP deputy chief for administration, Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan. (File photo)
MANILA – The national adjudication board of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will begin its probe on the second batch of police officers allegedly involved in illegal drugs, a ranking official said Tuesday.
Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan, PNP deputy chief for administration and board chairperson, said the second batch consists of 352 cops, 83 of whom are under their National Watchlist on Illegal Drugs (NWID), while 269 are under their Counter Intel Watchlist (CIW).
He added that the probe results on the first batch, composed of 357 police officers accused of having links to the illegal drugs trade, have already been submitted to the office of PNP chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa.
The board will then take action against those on the list who would be proven involved in the illegal drug trade.
“We finished in the first week of March the 357 (belonging to the first batch). The RDs (Regional Directors), Directors, National Support Units (NSUs), will start their adjudication (as soon as possible) and simultaneous evaluation by the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), Integrity Monitoring Enforcement Group (IMEG), PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS), and Intelligence group (IG). We hope to finish it by the first week of June,” Cascolan said in a text message.
The narco-list is a consolidation of intelligence and other reports from law-enforcement agencies and still needs to be verified and validated. The list also includes local officials and judges as well as other personalities.
The validation process involves adjudication at the regional and directorial level for one week before the cases go to the national level which will handle the cases for three weeks.
Once all the cases are submitted to the Office of the Chief PNP, it will take three days for him to submit the results of the adjudication to the President for approval.
Earlier, Gamboa refused to disclose the names of those included on the watch list despite repeated questions from the media.
Meanwhile, lawyer Alfegar Triambulo, Inspector General of the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS), bared that 47 policemen in the drug list have previous administrative cases.
These included cases of illegal drugs, grave misconduct, grave dishonesty, indiscriminate firing, alarm and scandal, homicide and murder.
Triambulo said they have recommended either dismissal from the service or a 60 to 90-day suspension for erring police officers while some cases were dismissed due to lack of merit.
Ten on the list of IAS were from Police Regional Office 4-A, nine from National Capital Region Police Office, eight from PRO 13, seven from PRO Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), among others.
Earlier, PNP spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said as soon as the adjudication process is done, the PNP will investigate the sources of the information against police officers who were cleared.
He said it is likely that professional jealousy prompted some police officers vying for higher ranks to fabricate reports against their colleagues whom they consider as rivals.
Police officers proven to be spreading false claims on the drug list may face grave misconduct that could lead to dismissal from the service, he said. (PNA)
