Now that Police Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa is the full-fledged chief of the Philippine National Police, eradicating the “culture of wrongdoing” in the force should be his top priority, the vice chairman of the National Police Commission said Saturday.
“If people are corrupt-free, then all the other programs in law enforcement will follow suit. For instance, the drug problem will succeed because corruption is no longer part of it,” vice chairman Rogelio Casurao of Napolcom, which exercises administrative powers over the PNP, told ANC’s “Dateline.”
“To me, this I think is the point being driven out by President [Rodrigo Duterte], try to reform your ways in the PNP. Try to eradicate the culture of corruption,” Casurao said, referring to the President’s repeated admonitions to the force regarding corruption.
“Try to eradicate the culture of wrongdoing because all other programs will have to succeed because people who are in the organization are free of any ill-intent in the government,” he added.
President Duterte on Friday night said he would appoint Gamboa, currently officer-in-charge of the 190,000-strong police force, as the next PNP chief.
He replaced Oscar Albayalde, who relinquished his post on Oct. 14 amid allegations he protected some police officers accused of selling seized narcotics in 2013, when he was Pampanga police chief.
A a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s Sinagtala Class of 1986, Gamboa was a classmate of former PNP chiefs Albayalde and now Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
Casurao said he believed the PNP could transform its ways under Gamboa’s leadership, despite only having nine months to lead the police force before he retires in September.
“I still have that strong belief with the leadership of PNP under Lt. Gen. Gamboa and of course [Interior] Secretary [Eduardo] Año. A lot can be expected to see a fully improved, fully reliable police departmentthat would really be something to be proud of,” he said.
Police officers have been repeatedly tagged in corrupt practices, including extortion and other police abuses.
Earlier this week, the Justice department indicted Albayalde and 12 police officers for alleged graft over a 2013 drug raid where the officers allegedly sold seized narcotics.
