Leadership by example remains the key to ensuring discipline in the Philippine National Police (PNP), former PNP Chief and Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson said.
Lacson stressed this is the secret that would give the PNP Chief the moral authority to tell his personnel not to extort or be involved in criminal activities.
“If the Chief PNP does not extort or engage in crime, he has the moral authority to tell his men to follow his example.”
“When I was Chief PNP, I had only one baseline – leadership by example. If the Chief PNP does not extort or engage in crime, he has the moral authority to tell his men to follow his example,” the veteran legislator said in English and Filipino at the Kapihan sa Senado forum.
The seasoned lawmaker stressed this in the wake of recent crimes involving police personnel such as a rape in Cebu, and a policeman stabbing a fellow officer in Camp Crame, and a Negros Oriental policeman who killed three fellow officers and a female civilian in a restaurant-bar.
During his term as PNP Chief from 1999 to 2001, the senator led by example and cleansed the PNP of rogues – thus earning the PNP high trust and approval ratings from the public.
“Discipline the ICU – Inept, Corrupt and Undisciplined – police officers.”
Lacson said he trusts acting PNP chief P/Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. will work with Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla in disciplining what he called the ICU – Inept, Corrupt and Undisciplined – police officers.
“Nartatez knows my style as Chief PNP. I hope he with the help of the DILG secretary will discipline the police,” he said.
In the meantime, Lacson said he intends to file legislation giving the PNP more teeth against rogue members by making its Internal Affairs Service (IAS) independent.
“The IAS must be separate from the PNP and have more teeth and more power. For now, it seems to be an adjunct of the PNP and is not truly independent,” he concluded.
