Lacson urges Purisima’s early retirement to ‘stabilize’ PNP

Former PNP chief Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (Facebook photo/Carlo Loreto)

MANILA – In order to ‘stabilize’ the Philippine National Police (PNP), former police chief Panfilo “Ping” Lacson has urged previously suspended police chief Alan Purisima to consider early retirement.

Purisima is on a leave of absence for a month. He has resigned from his post after being tagged in the gruesome Mamasapano clash with Moro rebels earlier this year.

Purisima, however, is set to return next month as he is not yet due to retire until five months from now. Although he will no longer take the highest position in the police organization, he remains a four-star police general.

With this, Lacson has called out Purisima to opt for an early retirement as there can only be one four-star general in the police force. Lacson has noted that ‘as long as Purisima retains that rank, nobody can get the fourth star.’

Lacson has added that ‘the PNP can’t be run by a permanent officer in charge;’ President Benigno Aquino III must appoint a new and permanent PNP chief soon as the position has remained vacant for a while now.

Moreover, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, who is serving as the PNP OIC, will be retiring next month. And even as the PNP OIC, Espina has no authority over certain things, like promoting police officers.

And without a PNP chief, the promotion of police personnel and officers has remained stalled. Because of this, policemen in acting capacity could not exercise proper leadership in their jurisdictions. There are now many OIC’s in the police organization, but like Espina, they only have ‘limited authority’ in their positions.

Lacson has then pointed out that the absence of a PNP chief and the backlog of promotions resulted to a ‘suffering’ police organization.