1,027 newly promoted police officers take their oath in front of PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde at Camp Crame, Quezon City. More than 16,000 officers were promoted out of 64,000 applicants nationwide. ANALY LABOR

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde reiterated yesterday a warning that there will be “no mercy” for police officers who will be found guilty of involvement in illegal activities.

“Just as we promised, the relentless drug war to be more chilling, and so it will be. When police personnel are involved, there will be no more mercy,” said Albayalde during the promotion rites in Camp Crame yesterday morning.

At least 16,000 police officers nationwide were promoted and 1,282 commissioned officers while 15,558 non-commissioned officers got higher ranks.

“As newly-promoted police officers, I expect that you will remain strongly committed to the public, by upholding the PNP core values at all times. Let us prove that we truly deserve the people’s confidence and respect,” he said.

The promotions came amid an intensified campaign by the PNP to weed out scalawags and corrupt policemen.

In a separate briefing, Albayalde stressed that the system of reward and punishment should motivate police personnel to do better in their duty, citing the fact that two weeks ago, a police officer died in a shootout with arresting officers of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during a buy-bust operation.

The PNP chief also said that they are always on the right track in cleaning their ranks as pointed out by Senator Ping Lacson earlier.