Philippine Daily Inquirer

Purisima, 10 cops fired for hiring bogus gun license courier

- By Dona Z. Pazzibugan

FOR SERIOUS dishonesty and grave abuse of authority, Director General Alan Purisima, the former Philippine National Police chief, and 10 PNP officers were dismissed from the service for entering into an anomalous contract with an unregister­ed courier service firm to deliver firearms licenses.

President Aquino had vigorously defended Purisima, a close personal friend, from any wrongdoing last year.

Ombudsman Conchita Car- pio Morales announced on Tuesday that she found substantia­l evidence of wrongdoing by Purisima and the other PNP officials over the exclusive contract given to Werfast Documentar­y Agency Inc. in 2011 to order their dismissal on the grounds of administra­tive liability.

The others who were dismissed were the PNP Central Luzon director, Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, whowas considered a top contender for the next PNP chief; the Firearms and Ex-

plosives Office (FEO) head, Chief Supt. Napoleon Estiles; Senior Superinten­dents Allan Parreño, Eduardo Aciento and Melchor Reyes; Supt. Lenbell Fabia; and Chief Inspectors Sonia Calixto, Nelson Bautista, Ricardo Zapata Jr. and Ford Tuazon.

Morales said the PNP officials were accused of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and grave abuse of authority.

Benefits forfeited

She also ordered the retirement benefits of the men forfeited and perpetuall­y banned them from working in government.

Purisima and the 10 other PNP officials as well as seven Werfast representa­tives will still face an investigat­ion for graft, according to the Ombudsman.

Last Dec. 4, Morales suspended for six months the PNP officials, including former PNP Civil Security Group head, Director Gil Meneses who retired before the complaint was filed.

While serving his suspension, Purisima resigned as PNP chief over the Mamasapano controvers­y.

Petrasanta is serving another Ombudsman-ordered suspension for six months until July 5 over another case involving the loss of 1,004 AK-47 rifles that were later traced to the New People’s Army during his stint as FEO chief.

P-Noy’s trust in Purisima

Malacañang withheld making a statement on the Ombudsman’s dismissal of Purisima and other police officers.

“Wewill wait for the official copy of the resolution from the Office of the Ombudsman for us to be able to properly address this matter,” Communicat­ions Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said late yesterday afternoon.

Mr. Aquino trusted Purisima so much that he continued to consult the police official on police counterter­rorism efforts even when the latter was serving a six-month suspension stemming from the Werfast contract.

But the police operation against Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, ended in a bloodbath—44 Special Action Force commandos, 17 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members and five civilians were killed in Mamasapano, Maguindana­o on Jan. 25.

The incident also dealt a blow to the government’s peace process with the MILF, with Mr. Aquino’s priority measure, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), still not passed as he enters his last year in office.

The proposed BBL is necessary to allow the creation of a new autonomous Bangsamoro region, which was accepted by the MILF in exchange for ending its separatist war.

Pressure, coercion

The Ombudsman said the PNP under Purisima gave Werfast the exclusive contract to deliver renewed firearms licenses even though it had no track record as a courier company, lacked enough capital and did not have the manpower and logistical capability to make deliveries around the country.

“Evidence shows… (Purisima) himself exerted pressure and coercion over his subordinat­es on behalf of Werfast,” Morales said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.

The Werfast representa­tives impli- cated in the graft complaint were Mario Juan, Salud Bautista, Enrique Valerio Ireno Bacolod, Lorna Perena, Juliana Pasia and Marilyn Chua

The Ombudsman said then FEO chief Estiles entered into a memorandum of agreement with Werfast in May 2011 without undergoing the procuremen­t, accreditat­ion and qualificat­ion process.

Petrasanta, as then chair of the technical working group, recommende­d in June 2011 that Werfast be the exclusive courier.

Unregister­ed firm

At the time, the Ombudsman found Werfast was not a registered corporatio­n since it was only incorporat­ed in August 2011 with a P65,000 capital.

The company did not meet the required capitaliza­tion of P500,000 to operate in more than two regions, the Ombudsman said.

The Ombudsman said Meneses, who was then chief of the PNP Civil Security Group, submitted a memorandum to Purisima in February 2013 recommendi­ng that the delivery of license cards by courier service be made mandatory and that Werfast had been accredited.

But the Ombudsman found that it was only in March 2013 that Meneses issued the policy on accreditat­ion and it was only in April 2013 that the FEO Courier Services Accreditat­ion Board (CSAB), which Meneses created in 2012, issued a resolution accreditin­g Werfast.

The Ombudsman said the FEO CSAB disregarde­d the criteria when it accredited Werfast, which did not submit a clearance from the PNP directorat­e for intelligen­ce, did not have the authority to operate as a courier service and lacked accreditat­ion from the Department of Science and Technology.

Werfast had no track record as a courier service or any other business, and turned to another courier company, LBC, to fulfill its obligation since it had no machinery, manpower and logistics capability, the Ombudsman said.

Funds siphoned off

The Ombudsman Fact-Finding Investigat­ion Bureau earlier said that the PNP officials “siphoned off the mandatory delivery fees” the FEO had collected from gun owners for the delivery of their gun licenses.

The fact-finding bureau said Werfast contracted the services of LBC and charged gun owners P190 for deliveries in Metro Manila and P290 in the provinces. LBC was charging its clients only P90 for the service, it said.

“Evidence shows not only that Purisima knew what he was doing in signing the Meneses memorandum but he himself exerted pressure and coercion over his subordinat­es on behalf of Werfast,” Morales said.

The PNP terminated the contract with Werfast in March 2014 amid the complaints filed by a private citizen and the Deputy Ombudsman for military and other law enforcemen­t agencies.

Sought for comment, PNP spokespers­on Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor said the PNP “has not yet received any official document from the Ombudsman on the matter.”

Requests for comment from the camp of Purisima and Petrasanta were unanswered as of press time.

 ??  ?? PURISIMA allegedly gave exclusive contract to unregister­ed courier firm without capital, capability and track record.
PURISIMA allegedly gave exclusive contract to unregister­ed courier firm without capital, capability and track record.
 ??  ?? PETRASANTA, then chair of the technical group, recommende­d an exclusive courier to deliver gun licenses.
PETRASANTA, then chair of the technical group, recommende­d an exclusive courier to deliver gun licenses.

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