Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla has admitted that a “great number” of former police officers who were dismissed from the force eventually become involved in organised crime.
Remulla made the revelation during the Senate finance subcommittee hearing on the proposed 2027 budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and its attached agencies, which includes the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“We made a study of the 8,000 dismissed PNP police persons ages 55 and below. A great number of them end up in organised crime, and that’s where the disparity lies,” Remulla told the panel.
“If we get sub-quality policemen and we equip them with the proper tools and knowledge of the police and then they are dismissed, then they end up on the other side of the law... That’s why we cannot be in a rush to fill those positions, because it might end up getting worse,” he continued.
During the hearing, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian asked how the DILG plans to fill 49,000 police personnel positions required to maintain a one-cop-in-500-civilians ratio.
Remulla admitted that though there are several applicants, few are qualified.
“The bigger problem really is the quality of those who apply... Even though they take the exam, some people really want to be police officers but they are not qualified. So we have to do a great deal of capacity building before we fill up those positions,” Remulla explained.
He added: “We only accept 10% of applicants. A great deal are not really qualified to be policemen. Others just hear that the police have a good life, a high entry salary, but they are not qualified.” — Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
