Friday, January 05, 2007 Cebu City’s new police chief given time to solve robberies
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña expects that peace and order will improve despite the two robberies that happened less than two days after a new city police chief assumed office.
Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, the new Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) chief, “could not be faulted” for the robberies, the mayor added.
The office of a cooperative was robbed last Wednesday, less than 24 hours after robbers victimized Yusay Finance and Credit Corp. on Comen-dador’s first day in office.
Osmeña said the fact that police were able to arrest one of the suspects in the Yusay robbery later that night should be considered.
He is confident the second robbery will also be solved.
The mayor believes the two incidents are not enough grounds to doubt Comendador’s competence.
“The police department does not operate that way, that you change the leadership and the next day you see improvements,” the mayor said.
The CCPO, he said, accomplished a feat when it arrested suspect Ronilo Nuñez, who was also identified as one of the perpetrators of the Alano and Sons lending firm robbery last October.
“Everything has been beefed up and fine-tuned. We’re already pushing the limit on what we can do at this point,” he told reporters yesterday.
At the CCPO headquarters, Comendador welcomed the mayor’s suggestions on how to address peace and order problems.
Comendador paid a courtesy call on Osmeña and other city officials last Wednesday morning.
“He was like a superior giving order to his subordinates. Like a father giving advice to his son,” Comendador said of the mayor.
He said that Osmeña, who has been very picky in his choice of CCPO director, only gave him general orders in the fight against criminality and in the deployment of troops.
Osmeña earlier said he will give Comendador time “to blend in” as the new acting CCPO director.
Apart from focusing on reducing criminality, Comendador said he would also like to work on getting support from the local government and instilling discipline in the city’s police force.
He is also planning to realign the deployment of beat patrol policemen and the personnel of the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) to trim the response time during alarms, particularly during major cases.
Comendador took over as acting CCPO director last Tuesday, replacing Supt. Melvin Gayotin, who held the position for almost three years. (RHM/JST)
