July 18, 2003, The Philippine Star, Philippine president vows to act against corruption in police,

July 18, 2003, The Philippine Star, Philippine president vows to act against corruption in police,

President Arroyo warned yesterday she would not hesitate to implement a top-to-bottom revamp of the Philippine National Police [PNP], and ordered its officials "to shape up or ship out".

"The PNP leaders should shape up... [ellipsis as published] I will not hesitate to undertake a revamp if no results are forthcoming," Mrs Arroyo said.

The president made the statement following the escape of Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, bomb-maker of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Islamist group, from his detention cell at Camp Crame last Monday [14 July].

Mrs Arroyo said PNP chief Director-General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr and other top PNP officials should take responsibility for the security foul-up, adding she would not tolerate any more excuses.

"I hold the PNP chief and the entire leadership of the PNP accountable for resolving the problem of police corruption once and for all because it is already eating into the security of our nation," Mrs Arroyo said in her brief remarks during the inauguration of the regional consular office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Tacloban City yesterday.

Mrs Arroyo also took the occasion to respond to international criticisms on the "entrenched corruption" in the Philippine bureaucracy and police force, which the Australian press had blamed for the escape of al-Ghozi.

"I acknowledge the serious problem of corruption in the police organization and I am making no excuses for it. We must face the truth and do something about it," she said.

Mrs Arroyo said the police could no longer say that only "a few bad eggs" were behind the misdeeds, and that "the people are tired of these worn-out explanations". [passage omitted]

Al-Ghozi fled with Abdulmukim Ong Edris and Omar Opik Lasal, alias Meram Abante, both suspected members of the bandit Abu Sayyaf group, from their maximum security cell in Camp Crame last Monday.

In June last year, Faizal Marohombzar, the leader of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang and two of his followers, escaped from Camp Crame detention centre.

Barely four months later, suspected drug lord Henry Tan, arrested in 2001 in Zambales for possession of 350 kg of shabu [methamphetamine hydrochloride] worth an estimated 700m pesos, also escaped. Tan fled after sawing off the iron window grills of his detention cell.

"It is highly probable that this problem is also related to the escape of no less that five prominent detainees, including that of (Khadafi) Janjalani, from Camp Crame over the past 10 years," Mrs Arroyo said, referring to the escape of the Abu Sayyaf leader in 1995 who later joined his comrades in a kidnapping spree beginning in the year 2000. [passage omitted]