THE Philippine National Police on Wednesday removed at least 398 policemen from its roster, and of those 167 had been linked to drug-related offenses.
Records from the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management showed that the 398 policemen were among the 1,614 police personnel who had been disciplined over administrative cases covering the period January 2016 to February 2018.
The PNP Public Information Office said among those dismissed were 151 policemen who were found positive for drug use and 18 who had been linked to drug-related activities.
Of those dismissed from the service, 91 were removed for absence without leave, 10 for kidnapping, 22 for murder, three for rape, six for homicide, two for parricide and three for illegal detention.
The PNP also said 1,216 other police personnel were demoted, suspended, reprimanded, restricted or received no pay during the same period.
The Directorate said it investigated 14,515 administrative cases, and of those 8,422 cases were resolved while 6,093 more were still being resolved.
Since assuming the top post in the PNP, Ronald dela Rosa has tried to remove the bad eggs in the organization.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte extended Dela Rosa’s tour of duty indefinitely to help him cleanse promote professionalism in the PNP, which has a very poor public image as a result of many factors, but mostly due to its violent war on drugs.
“As the father of the organization, my heart bleeds when I sign the dismissal orders for delinquent policemen. It’s a tough decision, but it has to be done for the sake of the organization,” Dela Rosa said.
