Napolcom: Salary raise won't change rogue cops
A salary increase may not change rogue cops who commit crimes, a National Police Commission (Napolcom) official said Friday.
Under Joint Resolution No. 1, a Police Officer 1 (PO1) will now receive P29,668, a 100 percent increase from the previous P14, 834 monthly basic pay.
While some see the salary increase as a means to stop police officers from engaging in illegal activities, Napolcom Vice-Chairman Rogelio Casurao said it would take more than a salary increase to lessen, if not eliminate, police "scalawags."
"Sa akin yung direct effect nito sa isang pulis, ay yung nga dating hindi nabibili ng pulis, nabibili na niya ngayon. Kasi mas malaki na ang takehome pay niya? Pero I will not easily agree na dating maliit sweldo niya at 'di siya mabait ngayon babait na siya. It remains to be seen. Ang kagandahan lang nitong administrasyon natin natugunan ang mumunting gusto ng mga pulis," he said.
"Bigyan mo man ng milyon yan na sweldo eh prone [to] commit mischief yan, he will remain the same," he added.
To date, the Philippine National Police is composed of 181,562 uniformed personnel and 11,677 non-uniformed personnel. Those with rank of Police Officer 1 (PO1), which number to around 75,550, account for almost half of the entire police force.
PNP InternalAffairs Service data from 20152017 showed that 70 to 80 percent of those who were charged with administrative cases were police officers with ranks of PO1 to PO3.
Casurao said it is no surprise that most of the offenders were PO1s because they are the ones in direct contact with the communities.
Casurao noted that since becoming a police officer is now considered as professionalized service, anyone with a bachelor's degree can be admitted to the PNP.
Casurao said there is something wrong with the recruitment process. "Sa recruitment pa lang, may depekto ka na eh. Simple questions lang sa neighborhood, may idea ka na kung anong klaseng tao itong tatanggapin mo," he said.
Casurao added that the training is compromised and aspiring police officers are already grafted into the faulty system. Another factor why new recruits turn into bad cops is that they are mentored by high-ranking officers who are also corrupt, he said.
"Kaya't napakamalas mo kung ikaw ay trainee at na-assign ka doon sa isang scalawag na higher rank mo at maging bisor mo. Kasi pag naturuan ka ng hindi tama, that's the start of your wrong education," he said.
Casurao said recruitment and training should be implemented well.
"Kasi kahit anong beautiful rules and regulations i-design mo, kung ang implementation ay dysfunctional wala ring mangyayari eh. So it really needs a lot of monitoring, na lahat ng mga policies, especially on recruitment, are observed. Tapos tinitingnan mo yung career promotion nila ay fair and square para you eliminate the dissension," he said.
Casurao added that there is no other remedy to revamp the PNP as an organization other than to ensure that all policies on recruitment, training, and implementation of laws are followed to the spirit. —