CLOSE to 600 generals and colonels in the PNP have submitted their courtesy resignations since Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. made the call last week as part of efforts to rid the police force of officers involved in illegal drugs.
“As of yesterday (Sunday), we were able to account more or less 500, close to 600 as reported by our different regions, different units,” PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. told a press briefing at Camp Crame.
Azurin said the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management is closely monitoring the number of generals and colonels or third level officers submitting their resignations.
Azurin and members of the PNP Command Group (PNP deputy chief for administration Lt. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, PNP deputy chief for operations PNP deputy chief for operations Lt. Gen. Benjamin Santos, and PNP Chief Directorial Staff Lt. Gen. Michael John Dubria) were the first to heed Abalos’ call.
Last Wednesday, Abalos urged all PNP generals and colonels to submit their courtesy resignations after a thorough probe on the seizure of nearly a ton of shabu and the arrest of a policeman in Manila last year.
Last October 8, police operatives arrested a drug dealer, Ney Saligumba Atadero, during a buy-bust operation. He later led cops to a lending firm in Manila where 990 kilos of shabu worth P6.7 billion was found.
A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr., assigned with the PNP Drug Enforcement Group who allegedly owned the lending firm. Mayo yielded two kilos of shabu worth P13.6 million.
In a television interview yesterday, Abalos said: “Those who heeded the call, as of this hour, is nearly 60 percent of all those who we asked to resign, meaning the full colonels up to generals.”
Abalos thanked the officers for heeding his call, adding the move will enable the PNP to finally rid the police force of erring officers linked to the trade of illegal drugs.
Abalos said he expects other generals and colonels to submit their resignations in the coming weeks.
“The deadline, right, we are looking at the end of this month,” he said.
Asked what will happen to officers who refuse to submit their courtesy resignations at the end of the month, Abalos said: “We will see, we are discussing these things.”
Abalos said only the resignation of officers involved in illegal drugs will be accepted by a committee that will be formed to screen the resigned officers.
He said they will be deemed retired from the service but “if there is enough evidence to file criminal cases against them, of course, we will proceed with that.”
