OSMEÑA
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña finds no need for police escorts and does not intend to ask for one, including his erstwhile close-in aide, SPO1 Adonis Dumpit.
In most cases, Osmeña said, he is more concerned of the welfare of his escort than his own.
“I will not ask for escorts. Why should I ask? I am more worried about my escorts because when they (Philippine National Police hierarchy) get angry at me, they send all of them (my escorts) to Bohol,” he said in an interview on Tuesday morning.
“Unsay ilang sala (What wrong have they committed)? Look what happened to Dumpit. Look what happened to the other two security. In the first place, I never asked for them. They were just assigned to me. They were here for many years. You get to know them, and they are very good. Why do you punish them? Unsay ilang sala? So why will I ask for escorts?” he added.
With the mayor’s pronouncement, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said he will no longer push through with his earlier plan to make a formal request to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to reinstate Osmeña’s three police escorts to him.
Aside from Dumpit, Tumulak earlier said he also wanted SPO2 Richelle Tejano and PO3 Romeo Batuhan to be reassigned as the mayor’s police escorts.
Tumulak, who is the deputy mayor for police matters, earlier said it was “necessary” for the mayor, being the city’s chief executive to be secured by police personnel.
“That’s his (Osmeña’s) decision. We will respect that. We won’t ask for the reinstatement of his police escorts because that’s what he wants,” he said.
Tumulak earlier said he plan to send the letter request to Dela Rosa this week after the three police officers were recalled to the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) from their respective assignments in Bohol.
The three policemen were taken out as Osmeña’s escorts soon after the mayor was stripped of his authority over the police last August.
The dispute, which stemmed from the mayor’s public pronouncements questioning the sudden relief last July of then city police chief Senior Supt. Benjamin Santos and police director for Central Visayas Chief Supt.
Patrocinio Comendador (PRO-7) and the mayor’s subsequent decision to withhold support for the CCPO, has since been settled.
The mayor got back his power over the city police last September.
Last month, Tumulak formally asked PRO-7 director Chief Supt. Noli Taliño to reassign the mayor’s escorts back to Cebu City.
Although Taliño approved their return to Cebu, he told Tumulak that the mayor would need to formally ask PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa if he wants his police escorts back.
But the mayor said he would not want to place Dumpit in a disadvantageous position, now that he is out of prison and back in the police service.
But Osmeña lamented the PNP’s failure to help Dumpit while the latter was in jail and undergoing trial for murder.
“I supported him (Dumpit) for six years because he was abandoned by the police. Simple as that. And then, when I had the chance, I raised the money for his bail. And then, when he came out (of jail) he had no place to stay, so I told him you stay with me. No problem. But he can come and go as he please,” the mayor said.
Last May, Dumpit was set free on a P250,000 bail that was paid for by Osmeña.