MANILA , Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde has shut down claims that there are disgruntled police personnel due to the revocation of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s amnesty.
“Our loyalty to the Constitution is always strong, and our loyalty to the Filipino people is always strong. That would not change,” Albayalde said on Monday.
“I can assure the public that there is no need of loyalty checks in our ranks, in the Philippine National Police. We do not have a reason to conduct a loyalty check,” he added.
Albayalde’s statement came following Trillanes pronouncement that some disgruntled military and police officers are not happy with how President Rodrigo Duterte voided the amnesty granted to him.
For Albayalde, there are no reports of recruitment or any police movements supporting any political activities.
“We have no information on any police personnel being influenced by the events in the Senate. It (restlessness) is uncommon in the police force,” the PNP chief said.
“Ever since, our policy has been to be apolitical, even during the upcoming election season, we can never intervene in politics,” he added.
He also said that police officers or officials caught meddling in politics would also be fired, just as Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Carlito Galvez told the soldiers.
“Of course (we will fire them), and we will deliberate all the commanders on the ground before the election time,” he said.
Plot to unseat Duterte?
In his arrival speech, Duterte accused Trillanes, the Liberal Party, and communist groups are conniving to unseat him by October of this year.
According to Albayalde, they are not dismissing the president’s allegations because it may be based on a report that is not from PNP.
“Right now we are in the process of confirming and validating this information. We take all the information that we get seriously,” Albayalde noted.
“Remember the president has unlimited sources of information, it’s not only the PNP […] although other information come from us, the others, we do not know… probably outside of the region,” he explained.
On Trillanes’ pending arrest, the PNP leadership vowed to abide by the law as Duterte has expressed earlier. However, operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group would remain on standby, to thwart any untoward incident.
“We will wait for the warrant of arrest. They (CIDG) will stand there until this situation ay maayos ito at maresolve,” Albayalde said.
“We deployed authorities there not to arrest, the president has been clear about that, no warrantless arrest. We would not make any arrests,” CIDG Chief Dir. Roel Obusan added.(davaotoday.com)
