De la Paz leaving BCPO, as tour of duty ends

BACOLOD City Police Office (BCPO) Director Ricardo De la Paz will leave the BCPO as part of the implementation of the Philippine National Police (PNP) order to reassign all the PNP key personnel who have completed their two years tour of duty.

The two-year term of De la Paz as city police director is set to end this month.

PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima ordered the reshuffling of all PNP key personnel in the country who have completed or will be completing their tours of duty during the 2013 elections.

Purisima ordered the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas to implement the relief or reassignment of all the provincial directors, chief of police, battalion and company commanders, regional chiefs of NOSUs and other key police chief officers who will be retiring, have completed or will be completing the two years tour of duty, including the officer-in-charge, during the election period on January 13 to June 12, 2013.

The order stated that the rotation shall start on December 3, 2012 in the 15 priority provinces, but shall not be later than January 12, 2013.

De la Paz said he is one of the affected officers in said order, including Police Superintendent Alex Dimaculangan, head of BCPO Public Safety Management Company (PSMC).

He said Dimaculangan will be assigned as deputy city director for operations of BCPO, while Police Superintendent Leonardo Borromeo will be the new head of BCPO PSMC.

The city director said he is waiting for the official order of his relief. He said he will be reassigned in PRO, while Senior Superintendent Edgardo Ordaniel was assigned by PRO-6 to be the officer in-charge of BCPO.

De la Paz said Ordaniel will serve as officer-in-charge (OIC), while the City Government led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia is waiting for the list of nominees to be sent by Camp Crame to be the permanent director of BCPO.

Ordaniel, chief of the PRO-6 Regional Headquarters Support Group, is from Negros Occidental. He was formerly assigned in Binalbagan and Cadiz Police Stations and was a former company commander in one of the Provincial Mobile Group in Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Noppo).

De la Paz said as soon as he receives the official order from PRO-6, he will turn over the command, possibly Saturday or Monday.

He said he will also turn over to the new OIC all the pending cases of BCPO.

Meanwhile, De la Paz believed that in his two-year term as BCPO director, he did his best to address the peace and order related concerns in the police office.

He said he managed to reduce the crime incidents and solve big crimes, such the assassination of Councilor Karem Gequillana, Ceneco robbery hold-up, the killing of Doctor Gumban, and the killing of BCPO personnel.

He said BCPO was also recognized during the Police Service Anniversary in PRO, having received four major awards, such as outstanding unit, best police commissioned officer of the year and outstanding Women and Children Protection Desk in Western Visayas.

Bacolod City was also adjudged as most the supportive local government unit in Western Visayas, he said.

De la Paz said the awards indicate that the city police exerted efforts to improve the peace and order in Bacolod, wherein there were no bank robberies, explosions or insurgency related incident and no organized crime group.

He said that being BCPO director was one of his best assignments in his career as a PNP officer.

De la Paz was a former chief of police of Escalante, Cadiz, Kabankalan, Silay and San Carlos cities. He also became the provincial director of Iloilo Police Provincial Office and the chief of Regional Operations and Plans Division at Camp Martin Delgado, Iloilo City.

De la Paz was also thankful for the support of the City Government led by Leonardia, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, City Council members, Representative Anthony Golez and the private groups in Bacolod City.