JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the PNP should be placed under the direct control of the Department of the Interior and Local Government to boost the fight against erring cops.
Remulla made the statement amid the involvement of police officers in various shenanigans, including three Laguna cops who had been indicted for robbery and the kidnapping of an e-sabong executive last year.
He said there is a need for structural changes in the PNP to address such problems.
“Actually, I have already talked to the President and (DILG) Sec. Abalos. I also discussed the matter with Speaker Romualdez, that probably the internal affairs unit of the PNP should be outside the PNP structure and must be placed in the hands of the DILG secretary and the latter should as well have a say in personnel movement,” Remulla told radio dzBB.
He said police organizations in other countries have adopted this set-up.
“The internal affairs office has to be a very strong unit with its own budget that is not under the chief PNP,” he said.
The IAS serves as the PNP’s watchdog in charge of disciplining, monitoring and investigating, and adjudicating administrative cases of erring PNP personnel.
Under the current setup, the IAS is directly under the supervision of the chief PNP, which means that all its recommendations are subject to his automatic review and approval.
The IAS also lacks the power to protect witnesses against erring cops as it only handles administrative cases and not criminal complaints.
Remulla noted that IAS officials in other countries are feared by police scalawags because they are independent from the police organization.
Remulla said when he was still a lawmaker, police internal affairs officers told him they were not empowered as they had to rely on the PNP for their budget.
Remulla added that putting the IAS outside of the PNP structure will do a lot in ending the code of silence among policemen out to protect their erring colleges.
He, however, said such a move would need an amendment of the law that created the PNP.
“Structurally, we need to institute changes in the PNP through the amendment of the PNP law,” he said.
