A Canadian forensics firm bribed the Philippine National Police to use its ballistic identification technology over 12 years.
A Quebec court indictment mentions former Interior secretary Ronaldo Puno and his brother Rodolfo, Road Board ex-chief, along with the bribe conduit.
Unidentified, the PNP bribees are referred to only as “its chief and logistics director.”
Montreal-based Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology Inc. paid out $4.4 million to bag $17-million PNP contracts from 2006 to 2018. Four top Ultra executives are to be tried for foreign corrupt practices. The company was fined $10.5 million but not indicted under a Canada law that encourages whistle-blowing against corporate misdeeds.
A statement of facts attached to the case says Puno “was a key figure in securing the budget and ensuring the procurement of” Ultra’s ballistics identification product to solve gun crimes.
From September 2006 till January 2018, Ultra enlisted Manila “commercial agent” Rizalino Espino to help bag PNP contracts, the statement adds. Espino’s Concept Dynamics Enterprises was to receive percentage commissions, of which “a substantial portion” went to bribes.
Espino enlisted two Filipino businessmen for the scheme because of their “close relationship” with the Puno brothers, the statement says. The Punos served till 2010.
Another Espino associate, “a retired police general,” worked contacts within the PNP, “including its chief and logistics director.”
Bribes were “earmarked and promised to” public officials and others with “sufficient gravitas to exert some influence” on those involved with procurements.
Nine PNP directors-general served during the period.
Under Philippine processes, an end-user unit, in this case the PNP, submits its product and service needs to the mother agency, Department of the Interior and Local Government, for approval and funding. Officials routinely break the Procurement Reform Act of 2003 that requires publication and open bidding monitored by NGOs and the press.
The scam unraveled when a British company bought Ultra and the new president received a letter in April 2018 from a former sales agent detailing corruption. Alerted, prosecutors filed court charges.
The Quebec Superior Court approved in February 2023 the trial of the four dismissed execs and the deferred-prosecution deal with Ultra. Federal prosecutors issued the statement of facts on May 17, and distributed it to the Canadian press on May 31.
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Nearly a ton of shabu worth P6.7 billion stashed in the office of an anti-narcotics sergeant protected by generals. That’s the biggest scam embroiling the PNP.
It comes after a series of corrupt procurements: two used civilian helicopters mislabeled as brand-new police versions, overpriced armored personnel carriers, defective boats and unsuitable motors, expired bullets, faulty handcuffs and 1,004 unusable AK-47 rifles that eventually were sold to the black market, including communist rebels.
The PNP often alibies that only a percent or two of its 228,000 personnel are scalawags. That’s still too many: 2,280 to 4,560 criminals in uniform – all on the loose.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos says only five of 965 generals and colonels were into narco-trafficking. He doesn’t mention how many and what rackets others are into.
The five narco-generals and -colonels can each command up to 250. That’s 1,250 potential “ninja cops” under them.
High officers jockey for plum provincial, regional and central headquarter directorships. Mimicking them, the rank and file seek assignment away from regular duties into special investigation divisions, special operations groups, special mobile forces, special reaction units, special weapons and tactics.
Foot and traffic patrols are left to barangay watchmen and civilian enforcers, who all want to be armed. Unlicensed firearms proliferate, numbering 2.5 million, accounting for gun offenses.
As of May, 539,000 personal firearms registrations were unrenewed, thus classified as loose, 9,700 of which are with cops and 9,200 with soldiers. Only 10,214 were confiscated from civilians.
Police visibility is the best crime prevention. Yet cops are hard to find and slow to respond.
Traffic always clogs around PNP’s Camp Crame GHQ in Quezon City. Can the brass at least deploy a few rookies in those intersections?
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