Wednesday, September 05, 2007 Capillas: Montalba's status By Stephen Capillas Galley Proof
WHILE Vice Mayor Vicente Emano is being courted with the position of chairman of the Anti-Crime Board by his Padayon Pilipino majority in the City Council--at least it does appear that way on the surface, though this had been discussed behind closed doors--the more important point lies in the status of Acting City Police Director Antonio Montalba.
According to reports, the Northern Mindanao Police Office clarified that only police officers ranking as senior superintendents can assume the post of municipal, city, or provincial police chiefs as per instruction of Camp Crame.
That was the point reiterated by Regional Police Director Teodorico Capuyan, a former provincial police director in Misamis Oriental now tasked to present the short list of recommendees for the city police chief post.
Based on that point, Montalba's predecessor, Superintendent Aurelio Trampe, outranks him since the latter is a full colonel while Montalba is not. And Trampe recently got assigned to the police community relations section even if he was not then scheduled to move out of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) until October.
It is no secret that Trampe got moved out due to political pressure brought to bear by Vice Mayor Vicente Emano, whose allies in the Padayon Pilipino party and the private sector are miffed by what they see as the PNP official's sub-par performance.
Nevertheless political maneuverings are a part of every police official's career trajectory and though Montalba's performance had been strong for some time, he may face the same predicament he had back in 2002 when he assumed only as acting city police director.
Information this corner gathered stated that since Montalba is a graduate of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. (ROTC) while Trampe came straight from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Montalba doesn't have the same standing and thus have few chances of being promoted, if at all, to full bird colonel--or in this case, senior superintendent---status.
The bias for PMA graduates for top PNP and military posts over ROTC graduates despite the fact that their performances aren't the same would see people like Montalba getting passed over in favor of others like Trampe.
And this does appear unfair especially when those ROTC graduates do perform better than their PMA predecessors so while City Hall can do all it can to retain Montalba the police leadership in Camp Crame won't share the same view.
In this regard the ball is on the City Government's corner and it's up to them how they wish to play it. (For questions and comments, please send to sunspot12002@yahoo.com or warpath1232@yahoo.com.)
