The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the director of the Pampanga Police Provincial Office (PPO) has been relieved from his post.
PNP spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo confirmed the order stating the police official faced administrative relief to give way to the investigation conducted regarding the Porac Pampanga Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) hub.
“The provincial director of Pampanga PPO was administratively relieved to give way to the ongoing investigation,” Fajardo said in a phone-patch interview.
“If you will remember the chief of police of Porac…was previously relieved to determine if there were lapses on their part,” she added.
The spokesperson said they also probed the illegal operation of the said POGO hub due to its license long being canceled.
“[We are investigating] how come an establishment is operating since even though they don’t have any license to operate anymore,” Fajardo said.
“The fact that the chief of police as well as the provincial director is relieved is to pave the way for the ongoing investigation to see and investigate if there was negligence of supervision on the part of the provincial director and why the illegal operations continued by far the biggest scam farm in the province of Pampanga,” she added.
The PNP Regional Director ordered the said removal of the two police officials from their post.
“Let’s wait for the results of the investigation if there will be a determination of failures of intelligence and failure of supervision on the part of the chief of police of Porac and provincial director, then corresponding administrative cases will be filed against them. But I don’t want to preempt the ongoing investigation,” Fajardo said.
“The reason why they were removed…so that they do not influence the ongoing investigation, so that is the decision of the regional director,” she added.