Curse of courtesy resignation

A world of difference exists between performing the role of a local chief executive of a city with a small PNP

unit within his territorial jurisdiction and running the affairs of the whole PNP under his ‘command and control’ as interior secretary. There’s in the latter a direct institutional and functional relationship toward a common national objective where the lines of authority are clear.

As the “big boss” of the entire PNP overseeing the thrusts and priorities of the organization with over 224,000 officers and men and funded out of the national budget for over P200 billion, the job is herculean. Goals that are national in scope pretty much differ from goals confined only to a city, hence higher managerial proficiency uses a wider lens to do away with myopic approaches.

And that was what gave. Even if the call of the interior secretary for courtesy resignations of the generals and colonels in the police force is deemed accomplished, the raging cycles of state capture (i.e. “narco cops”), scalawags within the ranks, “payola” from crime syndicates (i.e. jueteng, human trafficking) — render law enforcement a sham.

The fate of every general or colonel hangs in the balance with a mere fivemember “vetting or voting” clique wielding so much power to invariably push the “unwanted” to retirement, retention, dismissal, or cause them to face administrative or criminal charges. The more prudent move should have been to localize the problem as competently as the interior secretary could and not ask all in the top echelons to jump ship.

Ironically, 70 percent of detainees, prisoners and inmates that populate our crowded jails and prisons are drug-related cases that in turn clog court dockets all over the

“Would it not turn into the case of the cure being worse than the illness?

country and slow down the dispensation of justice. Erring cops in the police service can readily insulate themselves from culpability since they can tame the “beast” (i.e. corrupt judges) and make the weak pillars of the criminal justice system vulnerable to “criminal tradecraft”.

If all 953 top brass responded to the call, this simply means that an equal number of positions are deemed vacant for filling. Will it not create a huge void, not to say total chaos in the administration, operation and supervision of PNP’s mission and specific objectives since they are effectively placed on floating status in the interregnum; blur otherwise clear lines of authority; demoralize the officers and men they lead?

It’s difficult to imagine how on the mere say-so of just one Cabinet-ranked official — sans solid background as a former police general or colonel nor known competence in an allied line of work — the PNP could be dictated to on how it should fulfill its mandate. This unilateral act, alien to any bureaucratic tradition and derisive of existing civil service laws, cannot pass muster.

Or, suppose all Cabinet secretaries will ask those in top or key positions of their line departments to tender their courtesy resignations and leave their posts vacant so one “god-king” can weed out officials reportedly involved in criminal or nefarious activities? What compelling reason, if any, should trigger this phenomenon, nay experiment, to take its (un) due course?

In light of the recent involvement of an Army general as the alleged mastermind in the killing of a celebrity, is it now justified to call for the courtesy resignations of all commanding generals and colonels of the

AFP as a purging process against human rights violations? Would it not turn into the case of the cure being worse than the illness?

What happened to the Internal Affairs Service and the National Police Commission in the middle of these courtesy resignations of key police officers from their assigned or designated ranks and positions because someone from above “imposed” or “sanctioned” it? Have these agencies relegated themselves as the big elephants in the room than asserted their crucial roles?

Meanwhile, serious disruption in the police service and crippling demoralization within the ranks must have crept in. The curse begs undoing.

“The fate of every general or colonel hangs in the balance with a mere fivemember ‘vetting or voting’ clique wielding so much power.