Police Colonel Geovanie Maines, holds a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, November 12, 2019, in Camp Sotero Cabahug along Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City. | Alven Marie A. Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines — It would be up to Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) chief and Camp Crame to decide if they will heed Mayor Labella’s request to have Police Colonel Arnel Banzon as the acting Cebu City Police Office chief.
Police Colonel Geovanie Maines, who is currently the acting CCPO chief, said this amid Labella’s letter to the Police Brigadier General Valeriano de Leon, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas chief, endorsing Banzon for the CCPO officer-in-charge position.
Banzon is currently the PRO-7 plans and operations division chief.
Labella said that he would want a Cebuano, whom he trusted, to be the CCPO officer-in-charge.
Read more: Colonel Banzon is Labella’s choice for Cebu City Police Office in-charge
Maines, who is also the PRO-7 deputy regional director for operations (DRDO), said the officer-in-charge position would automatically be given to the deputy regional director for operations (DRDO) in cases when officers would be relieved from their posts, who would be holding a city or provincial director position.
In his case, he said he was assigned by Camp Crame to take over the acting CCPO director position as he was the PRO-7’s DRDO while the fate of the administratively relieved CCPO chief, Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan, had yet to be decided on the outcome of the investigation of the killing of Mayor David Navarro of Clarin, Misamis Occidental.
He said that Vinluan was relieved so that an impartial investigation on the October 25 killing of Mayor Navarro would be conducted.
Navarro was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants while he was under the custody of the Cebu City Police.
He was killed while on his way to the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office when the convoy of police vehicles were ambushed by the gunmen.
Read more: Clarin Mayor David Navarro shot dead in Cebu City
“Ang pagkaka-alam ko, hihintayin muna kung ano ang resulta para malaman kung babalik o hindi si Colonel Vinluan (As far as I know, we have yet to wait for the result of the investigation to know if Colonel Vinluan would be back as CCPO chief or not),” said Maines about Labella’s request.
Read more: Cebu police chief relieved to turn over Navarro case to NBI
Maines said that it would somehow be too early to endorse a different OIC as it would defeat the original purpose of the relief of Vinluan, which was to give way to a fair investigation of the Navarro killing.
However, Maines said that the letter of endorsement of Labella would still be considered and would undergo the process which would be decided by the regional director himself, and eventually the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame./dbs