Albayalde tells cops they can resign if they do illegal acts

August 12, 2019

Following the latest pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte allowing policemen to accept gifts “out of generosity” and “playing video karera”, the head of the Philippine National Police warned his men they can resign anytime if they want to engage in illegal activities.

In a radio interview, Police General Oscar Albayalde said they are guided by  Republic Act 6713, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard for Public Officials.

“For our policemen, we are always guided by our law… we have this code of conduct and ethical standard for public official. So if you cannot follow that and you are a member of the PNP, you can resign anytime,” Albayalde said in a radio interview.

The PNP chief said gifts or tokens from someone who want something in return from them is considered as corruption.

He said bribery and extortion is one of the reasons they intensified their internal cleansing program through the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group or IMEG.

“It’s on the integrity of the person… that’s why we have IMEG so that they can be monitored. If that (gift) is given in exchange of something, that is not right. That is against the law, whether significant or insignificant, if there are asking for favor then that’s a form of corruption,” said Albayalde.

However, Albayalde said there are exemptions in the law.

“Remember there are exemptions in so-called token of gratitude or insignificant of value. Just like what the president said, during birthdays, you will not know who sends food. Or on tokens, remember, even us we gave token to our counterparts and they are also giving us ( tokens). That’s a form of gift. This is what is exempted in the law,” he said.

“But if the gift can affect a bidding (process) then that is not allowed,” he added.

He said they filed administrative cases against cops who engaged in bribery and extortion.

Albayalde said salaries of police officers were doubled that’s why there is no reason for them to engage in illegal activities to earn extra income.

He said video karera is considered as illegal gambling under the amended Presidential Decree 1602.

“First of all, our salary is already doubled. We don’t have any reason to engage in something illegal… even before, police officers or probably even any public official are not allowed to engage in illegal (activities),” he said.

Albayalde clarified the statement of Duterte, by saying maybe the president wants policemen to engage in legal businesses.

“I think the president just wants to say to engage in business. That’s why he included even STL (small town lottery) as long as it’s legal,” he said.

The PNP chief said the organization never tolerates any act of illegal activities by their officers.

“We never tolerate (those acts) and we even arrest them. We have a standing directive,” he said.

On Friday, during PNP’s 118th Police Service Anniversary, Duterte said he doesn’t see anything wrong in receiving gifts from families or individuals who are grateful to policemen.

Duterte added that he will not punish them if they want to engage in video karera to earn extra income. Ella Dionisio/DMS