WEEDING OUT SCALAWAGS. Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa, says 6,000 erring policemen have been weeded out from the PNP since he assumed office last January. Gamboa spoke to newsmen during his visit to Camp Simeon Ola in Legazpi City on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. (Photo by Connie Calipay)
LEGAZPI CITY – Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen. Archie Gamboa, on Tuesday said 6,000 police officers who were found guilty of various administrative and criminal charges have been dismissed since he assumed post last January.
In a press conference at Camp BGen. Simeon A. Ola here, he said dismissal of these officers is part of the PNP cleansing program aimed at weeding out erring cops from the institution.
He said the program enabled them to get rid of at least four to six police officers a day involved in various illegal activities such as illegal drugs, criminality, and incurring absence without leave.
“The cleansing is a continuing process in determining why policemen become either good or bad. Let’s work with statistics and ask how many of the 209,000 police officers were involved in anomalies,” Gamboa said.
The 6,000 dismissed policemen represent only 2.8 percent of the total number of PNP personnel.
“Though with that small number of bad cops recorded in a larger context, the PNP has grown so large that we have to admit that there are 'pasaways' (scalawags) in the organization, so something has to be done to correct it so we can move on,” Gamboa said. (PNA)
