Bato on PNP Academy mauling incident: This tradition should be stopped

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Monday expressed dismay over the mauling incident at the PNP Academy, saying that such “tradition” should be stopped as it promotes a cycle of violence.

“That kind of tradition is not good. It’s sad. It promotes [a] cycle of  violence dahil ‘pag hindi na-stop ‘yang tradition na ‘yan every year na ‘yan mangyayari na tinatawag nilang bawian,” Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa said he had talked to Philippine Public Safety College president Dr. Ricardo De Leon and PNPA director Chief Superintendent Joseph Adnol regarding the incident as the PNPA is not under his leadership.

“It is not under me, it is directly under the [Philippine] Public Safety College, so my course of action was talked to General De Leon and also to General Adnol , the PNP Director, that this practice should be stopped, this tradition should be stopped dahil hindi maganda, hindi maganda,” he added.

The country’s top cop said that such “tradition” has been halted during the term of Chief Superintendent Cesar Binag who served as PNPA director from 2005 to 2007, adding that some members of the PNPA Alumni Association also want this kind of “tradition” in the academy to be stopped.

“Well I have talked to several alumni, sabi nila during our time, wala ‘yan eh, nawala ‘yan. Merong nagsabi ‘Sir sa amin noon meron ‘yan pero nahinto’, tapos ngayon bumalik na naman ‘yang ganun na tradisyon. So I talked to several members of the PNPA Alumni Association at they are all for the stopping of this kind of tradition,” he said.

While the PNP chief said that there is indeed such “tradition” within the academy, Chief Superintendent Ma-o Aplasca regional director of Police Regional Office 4-A, said that some senior members of the PNPA Alumni Association have denied that such “tradition” exists in the academy.

“We have confirmed with a lot of more senior alumni of the Philippine National Police Academy, they vehemently deny that this is a tradition...In fact, in our initial investigation, in the last year’s graduation, there is no such incident reported,” Aplasca said.

“If this is true, like our chief PNP has mentioned, this is barbaric, this is inhuman which should not be tolerated and if there would be complaints later on, it will be graduated into a criminal investigation but until we received any formal complaint, we will not be able to initiate any formal investigation,” he added.

This was echoed by Adnol, who said that such “tradition” of allowing underclassmen to “get even” with their upperclassmen is not sanctioned in the PNPA.

“Dito sa Academy, walang tradition na ganon...We do not have a dunking pool or dunking pit in the Academy...It’s not the entire 2019 class, it’s not a class action. Kasi if it would be a tradition, it should be authorized na gagawin ‘yon and controlled by the school kung talagang tradition,” Adnol said in a phone interview with reporters.

“What they did is not authorize, it’s outside already of the policy,” he added.

Six new PNPA graduates were allegedly mauled by their underclassmen right after the graduation rites attended by President Rodrigo Duterte last week. The incident occurred between 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on March 21 when the upperclassmen were going back to their barracks after the graduation rites.

Adnol said that the underclassmen even used arnis and rocks when they mauled the newly-commissioned officers. — KG/RSJ, GMA News