NORTHERN Mindanao’s 21 police brigadier generals and colonels tendered their courtesy resignation on Monday, after a command conference which the region’s police chief admitted left many of them in a state of uncertainty.
“It was a unanimous decision for us to submit our courtesy resignation from the service… If the President accepts our resignation, then we will process our papers to leave the service,” Northern Mindanao police director Brigadier General Lawrence Coop told reporters.
Coop said the decision to offer their resignation was a challenge, but the region’s highest-ranking police officials – two brigadier generals and 19 full-fledged colonels – reached a consensus to heed the call of Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos as part of the Marcos administration’s internal cleansing efforts in the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Abalos earlier decried the alleged involvement of ranking PNP officials in the illegal drug trade, saying it was like being shot in the back by supposed allies in the government’s war on drugs.
Coop said some officials had apprehensions about submitting their courtesy resignation because “we know that if the President accepts it, then that’s it.”
He said it was normal for anyone to worry given that a decision to accept a resignation is likely unappealable.
“Courtesy resignations imply free will,” Coop said.
“But we are confident about ourselves, knowing that we do not have anything to do with drugs. That’s why we accepted the challenge to support the intention of the secretary (Abalos) and give the organization the chance to be cleansed,” he added.
Coop said Northern Mindanao’s police generals and colonels were entrusting their fate to a committee which, he said, they were optimistic would be ”people with impeccable integrity who would conduct a fair evaluation.”
“This is a good thing so that we can restore public trust in the PNP and we can function better afterward,” he said.
