Sinas, Vinluan: We’re open to lifestyle checks

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, the director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) (left) and Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan, director of the Cebu City Police Office,  are ready for any lifestyle check. | CDN Digital file photos

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The top police officials in Cebu and Central Visayas are open to a possibility of a lifestyle check for police officers in the region.

This followed a proposal of Senator Richard Gordon, who leads the Senate investigation on the recycling of confiscated illegal drugs, to conduct a lifestyle check on officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) especially those, who were alleged to be “ninja cops.”

Read more: PNP ready to undergo lifestyle check anew amid ‘ninja cops’ controversy

Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director, said that she was ready “anytime” for a lifestyle check as she had always been transparent of her assets and liabilities.

P9M assets

Vinluan estimates her assets to be around P9 million, which does not include her husband’s assets. Vinluan’s husband is earning at least US $15,000 a month as he works with the United Nations in the U.S.A.

“We are very open with what we have, even to the last centavo. My husband and I have savings and that is open for the public to know,” said Vinluan.

Vinluan said that she had agreed on the lifestyle checks only for those police with suspicious actions, such as those who had proven positive to the drug test, or those seen frequenting gambling places.

So far, in the CCPO, she has not noticed police officers, whose lifestyles are well above their means,  nor has she received reports of any suspicious wealth among her forces.

Yet, she encouraged the public to report policemen whose lifestyles were suspiciously or unreasonably grand so they could be investigated.

For his part, Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, said he was also open to any lifestyle checks.

P12M assets

Sinas said he had accumulated a net worth of at least P12 million in his 40 years of service in the PNP.

He reached such amount after he sold a property in Zamboanga that used to be a liability.

He clarified that lifestyle checks had always been a practice in the PNP for erring officers and many of these investigated officers had been currently undergoing lifestyle checks.

However, the PNP prioritized the alleged “ninja cops” because of the directives from the Senate.

Sinas said, the police has always been encouraged to be transparent of their assets and liabilities as people who serve the public.

The regional director also said that they would coordinate with the Regional Internal Affairs Service in Central Visayas (RIAS-7) for any lifestyle checks that the agency might want to conduct on any officer in PRO-7.

He said that they will comply with the RIAS-7’s requirement to put to rest allegations on ninja-cops in the region. /dbs