CITF monitoring 1,535 PNP personnel allegedly involved in illegal activities

The Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) of the Philippine National Police is currently monitoring 1,535 police personnel, including a 1-star rank general, who have been the subject of complaints for supposedly being involved in various illegal activities.

As of March 7, the CITF has received a total of 10,381 complaints through text messages since the task force was formed on Feb. 6, 2017. A total of 1,486 text messages received contained PNP concerns.

CITF head Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo said 358 police commissioned officers and 1,177 police non-commissioned officers were identified with names and ranks.

"Watch listed pa sila, under our monitoring so we will validate and once we will have the evidence that's the time we will conduct police operation," Malayo said.

"Hindi po case 'yon na na-report, automatically huhulihin natin," he added.

The complaints were broken down to 311 complaints involving PNP personnel acting as a protector, 263 extortion, 238 drug users or pushers, 161 illegal gambling, 75 hulidap, 19 physical injuries, 13 illegal logging, nine unexplained wealth, six kidnapping, four gun running and 387 other analogous anomalies.

The National Capital Region Police Office had the highest reported violations with 475 while the Police Regional Office Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had the lowest with 25 reported violations.

Malayo said that 60 errant PNP personnel have already been arrested while 65 others were charged with various administrative cases over the past 12 months.

General

The CITF is also monitoring the case of the 1-star rank general officer who has been reported twice early last year for supposedly acting as a protector of illegal gambling.

"Mahirap po i-prove yung offense niya for protection," Malayo said. "I will not mention 'yung participation niya but he's involved in illegal activities...He is protecting illegal gambling."

He added that the highest ranking personnel that they have arrested is a chief inspector. 

Meanwhile, Malayo noted that the complaints they have been receiving is on a downward trend as they only received eight complaints for the month of February compared to the 538 complaints they have received in the same period last year.

He attributed the decreasing complaints to the salary increase of police officers.

Malayo said that there are only more than 100 CITF personnel nationwide as recruitment requires vetting process and background investigation.

"I am authorized for almost 300 personnel but for now mababa pa because it needs a lot of vetting and really background investigation doon sa CITF," he said.

The PNP formed the CITF after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered PNP chief Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to focus on ridding the police force of scalawags. — RSJ, GMA News