COTABATO CITY — Report police abuses or wrong doings to the Peoples Law Enforcement Board (PLEB).
This was the advice of Nomaire Madid, director II of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DILG-ARMM) to the region’s constituents.
The DILG has been strengthening the PLEB, a mechanism for check and balance organized at the municipal and city level, Madid said.
Normally, he said, victims of abuses by police only report the matter and file complaint before the local police office but not before the PLEB.
This is the DILG’s support to the anti-drug war of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“PLEB is giving ordinary citizens the power to complain against law enforcers who abuse their authority,” Madid told PNA in an interview.
To ensure the mechanism’s successful implementation, DILG-ARMM has just conducted Capacity Enhancement Training of People’s Law Enforcement Boards in Maguindanao on board members in 18 towns.
The next batch will follow early next year.
Republic Act 6975 or the DILG Act of 1990 provides for the creation of PLEBs in every city/municipality to conduct hearing and adjudication of citizens’ complaints against erring uniformed members of the PNP.
The PLEB all over the country is a powerful agency which has the authority to discipline policemen.
Among PLEB’s powers are to investigate and adjudicate all administrative charges formally filed with, or referred to it, against any PNP member, and to impose corresponding penalties that ranges from the withholding of the privileges, restriction to specified limits, suspension or forfeiture of salary or fine, demotion in rank of not more than one rank or dismissal from the service of the erring police.
The PLEBs are also empowered to administer oaths, summon witnesses, and require the production of documents, records, books, and the like under the subpoena “duces tecum.”
The local town and city councils provide annual budget allocation for the operation of PLEB, according to RA 6975. (PNA)
