PNP relieves 55 more cops; off to ARMM and Cordillera

DAYON

Another batch of 55 policemen, including eight officers, were ordered to move out from Central Visayas and were assigned to strife-torn areas in Luzon and Mindanao.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa ordered the immediate transfer of eight police officials in the region and 47 noncommissioned officers with the rank of police officer 1 to senior police officer 4.

They are heading either to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Mindanao or the rebel-influenced areas in the Cordillera region in northern Luzon.

The order from Camp Crame did not explain the reason for the relief.

But Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said those included in the revamp have derogatory records, some of whom with reported links to illegal drug activities.

“Their involvement in illegal activities has been validated by Camp Crame and so this (relief) order came,” he told reporters.

Last month, Camp Crame also ordered the relief of 28 operatives of the Regional Special Operations Group and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force as well as five police colonels.

RECLA

They were also sent to different areas in northern Luzon and Mindanao.

Included in the latest batch of relieved police officials were Superintendents Reycil Carmelo Dayon, Renato Malazarte and Alvin Ballo; and Chief Inspectors Noel Lomente, Sarah Jane Recla, Wilson Abot, Richard Gadingan, and Gerald Suquib.

To be sent to ARRM were Dayon, who was from the Provincial Public Safety Company of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO); Malazarte, deputy provincial director for operations of CPPO; Ballo, Carcar City Police Office chief; and Lomente, head of the Traffic Management Unit of Mandaue City.

Heading for the Cordillera region were Recla, of CPPO; Abot, chief of the Liloan Municipal Police Office; Gadingan, chief of the San Fernando police; and Suquib, former chief of the Cebu City Anti-Illegal Drugs and Special Operations Task Force.

Taliño said he would not mind losing policemen in Central Visayas as long as the region is rid of scalawags in uniform.

“Kahit ma-relieve pa ang buong Region 7, basta malinisan lang yong PNP. Kahit kunti na lang ang matitira, okay lang basta matino ang mga kasama natin sa region (It’s all right to relieve all policemen in Region 7 if only to cleanse the PNP. Even if we just have few personnel, that’s fine as long as I deal with good and honest policeman in the region),” he said.

MALAZARTE

Meanwhile, PRO-7 is preparing for another round of Oplan Tokhang. This time, however, the targets will be drug users and pushers who live in subdivisions and condominiums.
Taliño said they have yet to finalize the mechanics.

“No one is spared in our campaign against illegal drugs. Whether you’re rich, a celebrity, a policeman, or a politician, as long as you are into drugs, you will be a target,” he said.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, sought for comment, noted that the Philippine National Police (PNP) was “relieving people for reasons that are questionable.”

LORMENTE

Osmeña cited the case of Senior Supt. Clifford Gairanod, who was relieved of his post as CPPO director, even if “he had the best record in rank arrest and (best record of) firearms confiscation.” “He is number one in many items. Why was he relieved? Because of some general’s order,” the mayor said.

He said the same thing happened to Cebu City when then city police chief, Benjamin Santos, was suddenly transferred without due consultation or explanation.

“I was really discouraged. I started [an anti-illegal drugs] program and then they just change the people just like that,” he said.

He said the relief of some police officers “removed the potential of having a detailed and effective program,” since “it takes time to develop a team.”