By Rowena F. Caronan
FINGERS ARE crossed that whoever becomes the next Director General of the Philippine National Police (PNP) would not also become a magnet of controversies like many of his predecessors.
In fact, of the four PNP heads who have served under President Benigno S. Aquino III, only one – Nicanor A. Bartolome – managed to bow out of service scandal-free. The rest somehow became entangled in controversies that rocked their leadership of an institution tasked to enforce the law and maintain peace and order.
PNP’s most recent chief, Alan L.M. Purisima, resigned last February 6 amid the investigation on the Mamasapano incident.
Purisima had the longest tenure as PNP director general post under Aquino, a distinction that is likely to remain until Aquino’s own term as President ends. Purisima’s more than two years as PNP chief, however, has been marred with numerous controversies – starting with his appointment on December 18, 2012.
His immediate predecessor, Bartolome, had been asked to relinquish his post three months ahead of his mandatory retirement on March 16, 2013. The reason for Bartolome’s early retirement, Malacañang said, was to have a smooth transition of the tasks of the PNP head to whoever was appointed and for preparations for the May 2013 elections to proceed without hitches. After all, the election ban on appointments would begin March 29, 2013 – too close to Bartolome’s mandatory retirement date.
Bartolome had initially planned to go on “non-duty” status before end-2012 while holding on to his four-star rank until March to obtain full retirement benefits. The four-star rank, however, is the highest title in PNP and held by only one police official. This meant that until Bartolome retired, his replacement, Purisima, would remain a three-star official and on the same rank as some of his subordinates.
Both Bartolome and Purisima are known long-time shooting buddies of President Aquino. During the term of the President’s mother, Cory Aquino, Bartolome and Purisima had been members of the Presidential Security Group assigned to protect the Aquino family.
Bartolome eventually agreed to early retirement, enabling Purisima to obtain the highest rank in the PNP upon his installation into office. Following his appointment, Purisima promised to walk the path of Aquino’s “Daang Matuwid,” saying his administration would not tolerate erring and corrupt police officers.
He spelled out his plans for the PNP through a program called “CODE-P: 2013,” which stood for competence, organizational development, discipline, excellence and professionalism. He continued the Individual Performance Scorecard (IP Scorecard), which served as performance monitoring and evaluation mechanism that became the basis for sanctioning or rewarding a police officer. In October 2013, Purisima relieved police officers in Western Visayas and Central Luzon for alleged inaccurate reporting of crime statistics in their jurisdiction. He also relieved the police officers involved in the rubout in Antimonan, Quezon in December of the same year.
Since March 2014, however, it has been downhill for Purisima. The first blows were graft and plunder complaints about a multi-million-peso contract that the PNP signed with the Werfast Documentation Agency Inc. to deliver gun permits. Werfast was allegedly charging overpriced and substandard service. According to the complainant, Werfast was not in the Department of Transportation and Communication’s (DOTC’s) list of authorized courier service; moreover, the company allegedly secured its certificate of incorporation only three months after the deal had been made in May 2011.
News reports later quoted Purisima as admitting that the contract did not undergo a public bidding since the PNP would not pay for the courier fees. By December 2014, his involvement in the anomalous contract would become the basis for the Ombudsman to order a six-month preventive suspension on him and other police officers.
In June 2014, Purisima was also questioned for spending P25 million for the renovation of his official residence or the “White House” at Camp Crame. Indirect bribery charges were filed against him in September for supposedly accepting gifts from his Mason brothers, who donated funds that were used for the renovation. In addition, he was slapped with graft and plunder charges for his alleged untruthful declaration of the value of a multi-million-peso property in Nueva Ecija, as well as the absence in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth of a 10-hectare piece of land in Talisay, Batangas that he is said to own. Purisima has denied owning the Batangas property.
More recently, Purisima found himself at the center of the Senate investigation on the Mamasapano tragedy. He was lambasted for allegedly meddling in the operations of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) team on January 25, 2015 in the remote Maguindanao town even while on a preventive suspension. On that day, SAF troopers had an unexpected clash or “misencounter” with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a mission to capture terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir (also known as Marwan) and bomb-maker Abdul Basit Usman. The Mamasapano clash claimed the lives of 44 SAF officers, 18 MILF members, and five civilians.
In previous occasions, President Aquino, upon being questioned by the media, had repeatedly defended Purisima. But on February 6, Aquino announced on live television that he had accepted Purisima’s resignation. Purisima’s mandatory retirement, however, is on November 21, 2015 yet.
The Mamasapano tragedy is one of the two largest botched operations of the PNP under Aquino’s term. The first took place on Aug. 23, 2010, during which the apparent mishandling of police operations led to the death of eight Hong Kong nationals being held hostage by a dismissed police officer. The hostage-taker was also killed in the incident.
The hostage crisis, which earned the country international shame and infamy, involved then outgoing PNP director general Jesus A. Verzosa.
Versoza had already resigned by the time the report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee on the hostage crisis came out in September 2010. Even while Versoza was identified as one of the culpable parties, no legal action was taken against him and other high-ranking officials, including then Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rico E. Puno. Puno was known to be the President’s close ally.
Verzosa was named PNP chief in September 2008 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He remained in his post until September 2010 or about three months after Aquino took office. Yet even after his retirement, Verzosa still made headlines, along with his successor, Raul M. Bacalzo, as one of the alleged recipients of multi-million-peso monthly jueteng payola. Both denied the allegations.
Bacalzo re-implemented a one-strike policy on jueteng and illegal gambling activities immediately after his appointment in September 2010. Under the policy, PNP commanders would face relief if illegal activities remained active in their jurisdiction. Bacalzo also banned police officials from playing golf during office hours to improve the PNP’s image.
By the time his term ended in September 2011, Bacalzo had ordered the removal of the PNP logistics director and other officials as chairman and members of the Bids and Awards Committee that was involved in the anomalous procurement of choppers in 2009. His office also conducted a probe on the irregular repairs of light armored vehicles in 2007.
Bacalzo’s tenure as PNP chief, however, was marked by a rash of car thefts, bus bombings, and alleged ambushes of the National People’s Army (NPA). Yet, in a statement posted on the PNP website, the country’s crime rate supposedly decreased under Bacalzo’s leadership.
Bacalzo was Aquino’s first appointee in the PNP. Although he led the institution briefly, he is the only one so far who served until his mandatory retirement, which was on September 9, 2011.
Succeeding Bacalzo was Bartolome, who hails from the President’s ancestral hometown, Tarlac. Before his selection as PNP chief, Bartolome was popularly known as the face and mouthpiece of the organization, serving as such under several PNP director generals.
Bartolome headed the PNP for 15 months, from September 2011 to December 2012. He is remembered for securing funding for the construction of various PNP hospitals, including those built in Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo City and Camp Rafael C. Rodriguez in Butuan City. His success in securing projects from the Department of Health, however, is credited largely to his having a wife – Dr. Noemi Bartolome – working there. – PCIJ, March 2015
