Versoza urged: Probe multi-million racket in PNP training camp

By Myds Supnad

ARINGAY, La Union- Newly-recruited policemen in the Regional Training School here urged Thursday Philippine National Police chief Jesus Versoza to stop what they called “legalized extortion” by training officers involving millions of pesos.

The cops also urged Versoza to conduct lifestyle check on a number of training officers here who have amassed huge amounts of money at the expense of new policemen in Region 1.

The newly-graduated policemen sought the help of this reporter in airing their grievances to get the attention of the PNP hierarchy and to end once and for all blatant extortion being practiced by training officers here whom they called “super millionaires.”

The complainants asked that their names be withheld for fear of being harassed by their superiors.

According to them, their salary for the six- month training period amounted to more that P94,000 did not reach their hands but went directly into the pocket of these crooked training officers.

“Akala namin ay magkakaroon kami ng konting maiuuwing cash money sa amin after our training, pero may utang pa daw kami sa mga instructors namin (We thought we would have cash after our training but they told us we still have debts to the training officers told us),” they said.

The modus operandi of these unscrupulous training officers is that they are the ones who en-cash all checks intended for salaries and allowances of newly-recruited policemen.

The recruits were reportedly ordered to just sign their checks, then their training officers were the ones who took the money for themselves.

“Kung gusto raw naming maka graduate ay sumunod lang daw kami sa iniuutos nila. Takot kaming magreklamo baka di nga kami papayagang makagraduate sa training naming, (If we wanted to graduate, then we should follow their orders, they told us, We were fearful of making complaints otherwise we would’t be able to graduate). ” a teary-eyed policewoman told this reporter.

They claimed that even a lowly-paid PO3 training officer has now his own new car, while a top PNP training officer spent more than P300,000 during his lavish birthday last year.
A total of 511 recruits graduated last year in at the RTS here and now have the rank of Police Officer 1.

They said that even their P7,000 bonus last Christmas was not given to them since a ranking training officer took them all after ordering them to sign their vouchers.

“Naiingit nga kami sa kasamahan naming nag training sa ibang RTS dahil nagkaroon sila ng pera after their training; pero kami lahat dito sa RTS Aringay ay walang natanggap at naiyuwing pera, nagkautang pa kami We are envious of our peers who trained in other training centers because they had money after their training, but us who trained here in Aringay were not able to bring home money, but were indebted instead),” they said.

The new cops said they were expecting to have take home money at least P70,000 after their training since they could also compute their daily expenditures while on training inside RTS here.

“Pero nagkautang pa daw kami ng mahigit P10,000 sa mga training officers na ito. Nung umiyak na kami ay binawi nila etong utang namin. (The training officers told us we were indebted to them P10,000 each, but when we cried, they said we need not pay what they called our debt),”

This reporter learned that malpractices of these crooked training officers had been going on for years.

This year, a total of 119 recruits have undergone training and hundreds more are expected to be recruited the coming years.