Albayalde: No political intervention in PNP under Duterte admin

Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde on Thursday maintained that there is no political intervention of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration within the more than 190,000-strong police force.

The country’s top cop said the Chief Executive has not in any way meddled with the decisions being done by the PNP particularly on assignments, promotions and relief of police officers.

“Even if you relieved a regional director, walang pakialam yung ating Presidente provided that that’s your decision at alam niya na ‘yun ang tama na decision. Ito ang malaking pag-iiba nung time (noon) sa time natin ngayon,” Albayalde said during the weekly Kapihan sa Club forum in San Juan City.

“Walang political intervention sa mga assignments, sa promotions, wala. Merong mga recommendations, yes may mga recommendations pero hindi kagaya non ‘pag nirecommend niya dapat masunod siya,” he added.

Albayalde said that there is a looming reshuffle in the PNP after a series of meeting and deliberations with the oversight committee which evaluated the performance of ground commanders.

The retirement of police officers have also triggered the movement within the ranks of PNP, said Albayalde.

“We’ll be starting with the key positions mga directors ng NSU (National Support Unit) may mga regional director na magre-retire rin diyan and of course, base nga sa kanilang performance then we'll be going down to provincial and city level na next after the looming reshuffle,” he added.

The PNP chief, however, did not name the officials who will be affected, but said the reshuffle will be announced sometime in June.

“Still we don’t know kung ilan maapektuhan. Hindi natin exactly masabi kung ilan,” Albayalde said. — RSJ, GMA News