The national police headquarters in Camp Crame has ordered a lifestyle investigation on forty policemen in Central Visayas for their unexplained wealth.
Among other things, investigators will look into their houses, cars and businesses as these were incommensurate to their earnings as policemen.
Senior Supt. Jose Carumba, chief of the Regional Internal Affairs Service (RIAS), said that most of those ordered investigated are non-commissioned officers with the rank of police officer 1 to senior police officer 4.
Their identities are being withheld by RIAS while the investigation is ongoing.
The new batch of 40 policemen brings the total number of police personnel in the region being investigated to 103 after a probe was also launched by RIAS last month against 63 cops.
“We just could not penalize them right away. We have a procedure to follow and due process must be afforded to them. Nonetheless, these policemen are being monitored,” said Carumba in an interview on Monday.
The Regional Intelligence Division (RID) and the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) had been tasked by RIAS to investigate the policemen on the list.
The police probe is also being assisted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the country’s lead anti-narcotics group.
If two of the three units and agency confirmed the irregularities, RIAS will conduct another investigation and will have the final decision on the matter.
“What we want to know here if indeed the properties these policemen acquired are beyond their income,” Carumba said.
The lifestyle investigation is part of the internal cleansing of the Philippine National Police.
So far, only nine of the original 63 policemen investigated had been charged before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and other Law Enforcement Agencies (Moleo) for violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act; while another was charged before the Regional Investigation, Detection and Management Bureau for alleged involvement in illegal drugs.
Those slapped with graft charges were found to have failed to declare all their properties in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
According to Carumba, the new list of 40 policemen ordered investigated by Camp Crame for their questionable properties was based on a report on suspected police scalawags submitted by the PNP regional office to national headquarters.
Aside from going over their SALNs, investigators also secured documents and other information from the Land Transportation Office, the Register of Deeds, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“Based on the information we received, these policemen who are being investigated have unexplained wealth. Many of them have at least two vehicles and several houses. We want to know how they acquired all these,” Carumba said.
No time frame within which to complete the probe was given by Camp Crame.
“But we want to do it ASAP,” he said.
Public officials and employees are required to submit their SALNs under Republic Act 3019 to monitor their networth and determine if their lifestyle falls within their declared income.
Of the 103 policemen currently being investigated by the regional headquarters, only Supt. Rex Derilo, the former chief of the RID-7 and Supt. George Ylanan, the former chief of PRO-7’s Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG-7), are known publicly after their names cropped up in an investigation involving self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones.
Carumba said investigators had yet to decide on whether Derilo and Ylanan acquired unexplained wealth.
“The investigation against them (Derilo and Ylanan) is not over yet,” Carumba said.
Derilo and Ylanan were among the police officials from Cebu who were transferred outside the region last July after the assumption of office of the new administration.
“Some of them have been in active service for a long time. But we don’t have control of their actions. Talagang may mga pasaway. (There are really wayward cops),” he said.