PNP: No missing case folders of erring cops

MANILA, Philippines — The case folders of erring police officers in Metro Manila, which were earlier reported missing, were only misplaced, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

PNP public information officer Col. Jean Fajardo gave the clarification in response to reports that case folders of police officers assigned in the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) who are under investigation for different offenses were missing.

Citing her conversation with NCRPO officials, Fajardo said all case folders of the NCRPO are accounted for.

“These were misplaced, buried under other documents, but they clarified that no case folder is missing,” Fajardo said during a news briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

She said the NCRPO, under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr., has no backlog in administrative cases.

Fajardo said the NCRPO has resolved 800 administrative complaints against erring police officers, with around 300 members dismissed for grave offenses, since Nartatez took over the NCRPO in July last year.

During an interview with reporters on Friday, Nartatez said he had ordered an investigation on why some case folders of police officers were missing.

This prompted PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. to order an inventory of case folders of all police regional offices.

Fajardo explained that the folders were not immediately found due to the reassignment of police officers in charge of the documents. As a result, the documents were not properly turned over to the incoming custodians.

“There were times na binaha pa ‘yung opisina (the offices were flooded),” she said.