TOM STOPS COPS ALLOWANCE

For failing to curb illegal gambling, all 52 policemen assigned at the San Nicolas Police Station will stop receiving their monthly stipend from the Cebu City government.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he decided to suspend giving allowances to the police officers led by Chief Insp. Keith Andaya, head of San Nicolas Police Station.

Also set to lose their allowances are the four non-uniformed personnel or staff members of the police station.

“(There’s) too much gambling (in the area). When there’s too much gambling, I’m always sure there’s police protection,” the mayor said in a news conference at City Hall yesterday.

Osmeña said he requested Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), to transfer all 52 policemen in San Nicolas and to assign a new team to supervise Police Station 6, which has jurisdiction over Barangays Pasil, Suba, San Nicolas Proper, Pahina San Nicolas, Sawang Calero, and Calamba.

Police station chiefs have been receiving P6,000 a month from the city government while uniformed and non-uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police in 11 police stations in Cebu City are getting a monthly stipend of P4,000 from the local government unit.

Asked how long will he suspend the grant of allowances to the San Nicolas policemen, Osmeña replied: “Until they change everybody (in that station).”

Andaya, who assumed his post as chief of the San Nicolas Police Station only last July, refused to give any statement to the media.

Let it be

Doria, whose appointment as CCPO director was earlier frowned upon by Osmeña, also begged off from issuing a statement to reporters.

Doria requested Supt. Artemio Ricabo, CCPO deputy director for administration, to speak on behalf of their office.

Ricabo, in an interview, said they will not ask the mayor to reconsider his decision. There is also no immediate plan to relieve any of the Station 6 policemen but the matter will be thoroughly discussed by the CCPO officers, Ricabo added.

“We can’t do anything about it (suspension of allowances). We must remember that the grant of allowances is not a matter of right but a privilege. The mayor has the discretion to either give it or not,” he told Cebu Daily News.

“If he gives us an allowance, good. But if not, then let it be,” he added.

So far, Ricabo clarified that Andaya has not received a stipend from the city government since the latter was appointed chief of the San Nicolas Police Station only last July.

“It was being processed until this statement from Mayor Osmeña came,” he said.

Based on their monitoring, Ricabo said Andaya has been doing well in the campaign against illegal drugs.

“He (Andaya) is among our top performers in Cebu City when we talk about fighting illegal drugs. In fact, he conducts operations and arrests daily,” he said.

Ricabo said he has yet to check the records on the performance of the San Nicolas Police Station against illegal gambling.

Last Monday, a team from the San Nicolas Police Station arrested in a drug bust 48-year-old Rolando Osmeña, who claimed that he was an illegitimate son of Mayor Osmeña.

Aside from the packs of shabu taken from him, the police also confiscated from his residence a video carrera and two moli-moli gambling machines.

Ricabo admitted that eradicating illegal drugs has become their top priority since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office at noon of June 30.

However, he said there is no let up in their campaign against illegal gambling.

“Eradicating illegal drugs might be our top priority. But we nonetheless continue to operate against illegal gambling,” Ricabo said.

He advised Andaya as well as other policemen to keep working hard and not to mind whether or not they receive any allowance from the city government.

“You just have to work. Anyway, you’re given your salaries,” Ricabo said.

No worries

The mayor, meanwhile, was unperturbed over the possibility that he might lose again his supervision over the police due to his decision to suspend the allowance for the San Nicolas police force.

The mayor said his bigger concern is how to curb illegal gambling in the city.

“I am worried there’s too much gambling (in San Nicolas),” he said.

Allowances from local government units depend on the generosity and resources of the host city or province and are allowed by the Constitution.

Last August, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) stripped Osmeña of his authority over the Cebu City policemen after he publicly announced that he would no longer support the local police.

Osmeña had withdrawn support to the CCPO and the newly appointed police officers, and washed his hands off the fight against illegal drugs and criminality after Camp Crame relieved from their posts former Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO-7) Director Patrocinio Comendador and CCPO Director Benjamin Santos.

The mayor, who had gone all-out against illegal drugs with the support of Comendador and Santos, likewise abandoned the cash reward system for each dead crime suspect and announced that he would stop giving allowances to new policemen who would be assigned to the city.

But last September, the Napolcom en banc restored Osmeña’s supervision over the police due to the latter’s “reconfirmation and reaffirmation of support to the Cebu City Police Office, and the peace and order program of the President especially on illegal drugs.”

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor for police matters, said he was informed by Osmeña about his decision to no longer give allowances to San Nicolas policemen.

Tumulak, who was in Davao City with other city councilors attending an assembly of the Philippine Councilors’ League (PCL), said he will meet with Doria and the officers of the San Nicolas Police Station to discuss about the issue when he returns to Cebu City today.

But Tumulak also stressed that “the mayor has the prerogative to either grant or suspend the allowances of the police.”