The House Committee on Public Order and Safety on Tuesday grilled officials of the Laguna Police Provincial Office over alleged irregularities, including purportedly acting as personal escorts of the local chief executive of the city.

Laguna Rep. Ann Matibag, whose privilege speech in early May sparked the probe, alleged that 15 policemen assigned to the local government unit of San Pedro City function as personal bodyguards of the mayor and his family.

Art Mercado is the incumbent mayor of San Pedro, Laguna.

“That is a bad practice in the PNP, and it is an abuse of power. We hope that it is not true. Because if it is, we need to penalize somebody,” said Santa Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez, the panel chairperson.

The call for a congressional probe arose after some PNP officials were “reprimanded” for allegedly escorting Matibag during a local fiesta in the city on 26 November last year.

Matibag deemed the reprimand order “unacceptable,” given that the policemen involved merely worked crowd control at the public event.