Going after police scalawags

EDITORIAL

The Philippine National Police will launch a new strategy in an effort to address the problems on rogue police officers, an official said last week.

PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde has approved the implementation of a new approach to complement punitive actions against scalawags.

 strategy, which will be launched tentatively on July 10, will have a preventive measure aside from punitive actions wherein corrupt police officers are either kicked out of the service or sanctioned, according to Maj. Gen. Ma-o Aplasca, director of the PNP Directorate for Operations.

Aplasca said the approach would dissuade police officers from committing illegal activities.

“We are focused on the preventive concept of internal cleansing. The strategy will include volunteers from the religious community,” he said.

Aplasca said squads would be formed to forge unity within the organization.

A squad is composed of eight to 10 police officers, with one designated as the leader who will monitor the activities and report what they perceive as illegal activities of their members.

This strategy would be worth watching considering the number of police scalawags who are being reported by media on a daily basis.