PRO-7 chief appeals to CV cops to stay healthy, mentally fit

Call to C. Visayas police officers was made after deaths of two policemen in Cebu

Police Brigadier General Roderick Augustus Alba, PRO-7 director

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Stay healthy and mentally fit.

This was the appeal of Police Brigadier General Roderick Augustus Alba, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), to his 11,450 men in the region.

Alba made this statement following the death of two policemen. The first one was last Nov. 2, 2022, wherein Patrolman Edgardo Silva, 32, was found with a gunshot wound in his temple at 4:40 p.m. Silva was found lifeless inside the camp of the Police’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB-7) in Sibonga town.

READ: Police found dead inside camp barracks in Sibonga, Cebu 

Last Nov. 5, 2022, Police Staff Sergeant Brando Marana, 41, died after he fainted just outside the premises of the Regional Training Center in Consolacion, Cebu. Marana was taking Public Safety Junior Leadership Course at the RTC-7.

Police Colonel Miguel Guzman, director of the Regional Training Center (RTC-7), said that according to the physician, who checked Marana, the latter died of a heart attack.

“I want this [monitoring of physical and mental health] to be a good practice sa lahat…I gave the instruction last week sa head of RMDU-7 [Regional Medical and Dental Unit] to assess, gather all chiefs of police, enhance yung mental fitness, psychological and physical,” Alba said.

Silva’s case update

For his part, Police Colonel Arniel Agustin Catarata, chief of the Regional Headquarters Support Unit of PRO-7, said that they were still waiting for the autopsy result of Silva. Pending this, he could not tell for now what was really the cause of the policeman’s death.

However, he said that their initial investigation showed that Silva had personal problems prior to the incident.

“Based on our monitoring, hindi pa lumabas yung result. Still, we are waiting para sa kung ano ba talaga yung nangyari doon. RD has directed our investigators and chief of police if mayroon bang foul play o wala. Sa nakikita naman, based sa indicators, parang meron syang problema, personal,” Catarata said.

(Based on our monitoring, the results had not yet been released. Still, we are waiting so that we will know what really happened there. RD has directed our investigators and chief of police if there was foul play or not. From what we saw, based on the indicators, it seemed that he had a problem, a personal one.)

READ: CV cops told to prioritize health, adopt change in lifestyle