38 PNP officials get new assignments ahead of May 9 polls

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 31, 2022): 38 PNP officials get new assignments ahead of May 9 polls (By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan)

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At least 38 police commanders in the National Capital Region and other parts of the country were reassigned to other posts in line with ongoing efforts of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to isolate the organization from local partisan politics.

PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said those reassigned effective last January 8 are composed of provincial directors, city directors, and chiefs of police.

"That's what we did even before the start of the election period to make our organization apolitical, to do away with perception of bias or familiarity," Carlos said on the sidelines of the 31st foundation day of the PNP at Camp Crame, Quezon City on Monday.

He said some of those reassigned are already overstaying in their posts while some have to be replaced because they were picked by the incumbent mayors or governors who are running for reelection in the May 9 local and national elections.

"Our police personnel should be apolitical. They will be there to level the playing field and make sure they are not biased to one candidate or another," Carlos said.

He said it was the PNP leadership that decided on the reassignment of the provincial police directors based on the assessment conducted through the PNP rotation policy.

In the case of chiefs of police, Carlos said it was the police regional directors who made the decision.

"So that's it we do it to be apolitical, to lose the perception of bias or familiarity so we have a lot of replaced provincial directors. At the level of the chiefs of police, ours are the regional director chooses or decides on who to take so during command visits, during command conferences, I review our rotation policy," Carlos said.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1166720