Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla must dig deeper into this bureau, which hasn’t changed even after he instituted measures to combat its corrupt practices.

And they’re at it again. Higher officials of this bureau, it seems, have managed to convince the good Secretary that everything is above board — when in truth, the recruitment process, whether for new hires or for promotions, still runs on a simple rule: pay up or you don’t get in.

In a recent recruitment announcement made by the bureau a couple of weeks ago, Nosy Tarsee was told by an insider that a rate of P300,000 to P700,000 is taken in for a recruit. The same goes for officers applying for promotion to a higher rank.

The money is collected by region — the regional commander does the collecting, since recruitment is handled at the regional level. It’s then channeled up to the national office, with a fair share set aside for the national chief.

Say a certain region needs 200 slots for new recruits — the math works the same way for higher-rank applicants. Whatever is collected gets divided among bureau officials.

If, say, half that quota, 100 new recruits pay P300,000 a head, that’s an easy P30 million.

Never mind whether the recruit can actually perform the job, or whether he’s even physically fit for it. One will notice that even a visibly out-of-shape applicant made the cut.

Recruits in the provinces and regions, sources say, are forced to pawn their parents’ farm, their carabao, any property they have just to land a job or a position in the bureau. Imagine how much worse it gets when the asking price is P700,000.

Remulla, upon taking the helm of the department, was even offered P1.5 million for every vehicle the bureau would procure — but the Secretary refused, and ordered an in-depth investigation that led to graft charges being filed against bureau officials, including everyone involved in the bidding process.

But they never stopped. They keep enjoying the easy money.