Manila: The Philippine President’s Office vowed no let up in efforts to cleanse the country’s police of rogue members after some of its officers were implicated in criminal activities.

At least 12 active police officers have been implicated in a recent high-profile robbery carried out in broad daylight along the Mandaluyong juncture of the Epifanio delos Santos Avenue — a major thoroughfare in Metro Manila on September 1. ]

Although no one was injured, the incident has dealt a serious blow on the integrity of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the country’s premier law-enforcement arm.

The incident is also the latest news report in a long list of occurrences where police officers figure as the villains instead of heroes and defenders of the people.

Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr, during a televised press briefing said that rogue police officers “form a very small proportion of the total strength of the PNP.”

The PNP has a total manpower of 125,000 watching over a total 100 million population or approximately 800 citizens for every one policeman.

“There are serious efforts within the PNP to cleanse its ranks of rogue cops,” the palace said.

Like many countries, such crimes are a regular occurrence in the Philippines.

However, the incident last September 1 took another dimension as social media played a direct role in solving the case and identifying the perpetrators.

Minutes after the robbery was caught on video and uploaded in sharing sites, the clip went viral, drawing cooperation of the web-watching citizenry and law enforcement authorities in solving the crime.

On Tuesday, 12 of the police officers allegedly involved in the incident had been identified. Three were arrested, including a senior inspector, while the rest were being hunted down by authorities.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas III said no one would be spared in efforts to get to the root of the incident and cleanse the national police of scoundrels in uniform.

“This incident is very sad. Policemen are sworn to protect the citizenry, we had given them training, the badge of authority, firearms to enforce the rule of law, thus it is only proper that if they err in abusing the peoples’ trust, they should be held accountable,” Roxas said.

The incident adds to a long list of crimes where police officials were directly involved — including robberies, fleecing activities and masquerading illicit activities as legitimate police operations.

Roxas said the PNP needs to purge it ranks of corrupt policemen if it is serious in its efforts to provide Filipinos with a law enforcement agency with integrity.

In January 2013, a police operation conducted to apprehend a big-time operator of an illegal numbers game “jueteng” in Atimonan town in Quezon province, led to a shoot-out that resulted in the killing of 12 people, including a police superintendent, two lower ranking lawmen and a marine sergeant.

Twelve police officers who took part in that operation, including Superintendent Hansel Marantan, had been dismissed from service by the PNP in April for “serious breach of operational procedures.

In August 2010, a disgruntled Inspector Rolando Mendoza hijacked a bus loaded with tourists from Hong Kong.

Nine people were killed, including Mendoza, after negotiations for a peaceful end to the standoff failed.