MANILA — The Philippine National Police (PNP) reiterated the need to transfer the PNP Academy (PNPA) and the National Police Training Institute (NPTI) back to its supervision.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde made the remarks following the alleged “oral sex punishment” and hazing imposed on underclassmen by senior cadets of the academy.
“It’s high time that we take full responsibility of the training of our police officers in order to effectively address current dysfunctions,” Albayalde said in a statement late Wednesday.
Senate Bill 1898, authored by former PNP chief and Senator Panfilo Lacson, seeks to transfer the administrative supervision and operational control of the two institutions from the Philippine Public Safety College to the PNP.
Albayalde, meanwhile, recommended the designation of Chief Supt. Chiquito Malayo as the new director of the PNPA.
This came after Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) OIC-Secretary Eduardo M. Año ordered the relief of Chief Supt. Joseph Adnol from the post due to the incident.
Albayalde ordered the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management to immediately start the process for the possible designation of Malayo, former head of the Counter-Intelligence Task Force.
The DILG chief has also directed Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) president Ricardo De Leon to conduct an investigation on the issue and carry out measures to ensure that there will be no repeat of such incident in the academy.
The PNPA is one of the constitutive units of the PPSC.
“We should not tolerate such scandalous acts in our ranks. The PPSC should act with dispatch to ensure that the true ideals, values, and discipline in the academy will continuously be upheld,” Año said.
He said the PNP shall also conduct a separate probe on the incident to determine the criminal liability of the involved cadets.
Initial reports said the incident, which happened on Oct. 6 behind the barracks within the academy premises, involved an upperclassman ordering two plebes to perform oral sex as punishment for allegedly committing violations.
Two other senior cadets, who were allegedly present during the incident, did not bother to stop the punishment and just watched the alleged sexual act.
The respondent cadets, who have been placed in isolation, could face a criminal charge of hazing as well as administrative cases. The plebes are also filing a separate criminal case against them.
Last March, the PNPA was also embroiled in a scandal when six graduating upperclassmen were beaten up by 40 PNPA cadets on their graduation day. (Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
