PNP Chief Purisima must go

http://www.manilatimes.net/pnp-chief-purisima-must-go/132954/

PRESIDENT Aquino is shielding the Philippine National Police Chief Alan La Madrid Purisima, who has proved to be incompetent and incapable of carrying out the tasks he must do by law and who has been seen to have violated the elementary rules of ethics.

This is just one of many proofs that—contrary to his claims of having launched a campaign of transparency and righteousness in government—President Aquino is in fact a corrupt president. Here in the Purisima case, he clearly puts personal considerations and family connections above the principles of good governance and the morale of the entire PNP rank and file.

Under Purisima criminality has surged.

Jueteng and other illegal games have returned with a vengeance in all the provinces and cities, according to the testimony of experts working and witnessing for the foremost Roman Catholic anti-illegal gambling crusader, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz.

The involvement of top PNP officers in gangsterism and their partnership with drug syndicates have become more pronounced now under Purisima’s watch than ever before.

Even DILG Secretary Mar Roxas is apparently leery of Purisima and wants to fire him. Roxas is ex officio the top man of the National Police Commission, which has some kind of oversight powers over the PNP. But it appears that Roxas cannot give Purisima the boot because the President himself is his protector.

Mr. Aquino’s is the kind of Philippine government that the great newspapers of the world (except the Financial Times) and no less than the World Bank wrongly extol for having launched an effective and successful good governance and anticorruption program since he became president four years ago. The boasts of this president and his exaltation by the World Bank and the leading newspapers in the West are all lies!

Clearly, if Aquino were really a good-governance and anti-corruption president, he should give Purisima the ax. But it seems that even if God sends down a rain of fire and brimstone President Aquino is likely to keep Purisima on as PNP Chief because he can count on him. Purisima is his target-shooting buddy, his former bodyguard and his late lamented mother President Cory Aquino’s security chief.

More charges against Purisima
As reported in today’s issue, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) yesterday filed a supplementary complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman, adding to their original complaint against the PNP Director General.

VACC had earlier accused Purisima of plunder, graft, violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, indirect bribery, and the administrative offense of dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

VACC reiterated its earlier call that Purisima should be put under preventive suspension because if allowed to continue wielding power as PNP chief he could influence and intimidate witnesses and could have evidence against him concealed or destroyed.

The supplemental complaint VACC filed pertain to his failure to declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) a parcel of land consisting of about 200 hectares located in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija. The complaint says. “Undeniably, the SALN submitted by Respondent PDG Alan LA Purisima PNP are incomplete and untruthful.”

VACC, represented by Dante Jimenez, claims that Purisima understarted the fair market value of his properties– a Toyota Land Cruiser, a condominium unit in Cubao, and his house and lot in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija – as well as his total net worth.

“The claim of respondent. . .that he acquired the Toyota Land Cruiser [Prado] in the amount of P1.5 million with a discount of almost 70 percent or about P3 million is tantamount to receiving a gift and is covered by Indirect Bribery, “ it alleged.

VACC also repeated its call that Purisima’s son be probed on how he allegedly acquired six ventilated/mechanized poultry farms “worth more than 90 million pesos,” also in Nueva Ecija. The son has no means to acquire these poultry farms, VACC alleges, and adds, “Apparently, he was used as a ‘dummy’ of respondent. . Purisima to hide his unexplained wealth.”


VACC also called for a probe on the individuals who donated or gifted Purisima his “White House” residence in the police headquarters’ compound so that th