Sunday, February 18, 2007
PNP beefs up forces for polls
SIX police inspectors and 85 new police operatives will add to the forces of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) in time for the May 14 elections.
Acting CPPO Director Carmelo Valmoria said the 85 new operatives are those who have been assigned with the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) 7 for more than two years.
The 85 are part of the more than 300 officers distributed throughout the Central Visayas police offices.
Meanwhile, the Police Regional Police Office (PRO) 7 and its offices in Central Visayas have activated their elections monitoring action centers (Emac).
Central Visayas’ Emac has been in operation since Feb. 15, based on the directive of Senior Supt. Arturo Evangelista, chief of the Regional Operations and Plans Division and deputy commander of Task Force Hope (honest, orderly and peaceful elections).
The action center will handle the “pre-election, on election and post-election” monitoring of peace and order to ensure coordination of all subordinate units.
Links
Acting Cebu City Police Director Patrocinio Comendador, in an interview yesterday, said the monitoring action center serves as the “linking arm” to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Among the functions of Emac are to monitor and compile the number of people arrested for violating the Comelec gun ban.
Since the gun ban was implemented last Jan. 14, Comendador said that as of the end of January, the CCPO was able to arrest three persons. For this month, the CCPO has so far arrested eight people for gun ban violations.
Among those arrested were Junmie Merino, alias Palang, 21, who was implicated in the robbery and shooting of a 30-year-old Korean national in Barangay Banilad last week.
Police found in Merino’s possession the .22 Magnum revolver used by suspect Ramil Felicano in robbing and shooting Young Suk Jeon.
Merino denied any participation in the incident.
As for the six police inspectors, they were assigned to the CPPO after completing their field training program (FTP) under the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7.
They are Inspectors Meche Gabod, Rolly Lauron, Junnel Caadlaon, Joel Abuan, Allan Cuizon and Jose Rovic Villarin.
The six police officers were promoted to police inspector through the PNP’s lateral entry program.
Priorities
Valmoria said he will prioritize those police stations that lack policemen and have more peace and order problems in their area.
Designated to head the regional Emac is Deputy Regional Director for Operations Lani-o Nerez, while Insp. David I. Señor has been tasked to supervise the Cebu City Emac.
For the Mandaue City Police Office, Senior Insp. Albert Alesna is the assigned Emac chief; Supt. Jesus Galvan for the Cebu Provincial Police Office; Senior Insp. Jesus Pagdatu for Bohol Provincial Police Office; Chief Insp. Petronelli Balberin for Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office and Chief Insp. Eduardo Saavedra for Siquijor Provincial Police Office.
In a separate interview, CPPO deputy provincial director for operations Erson Digal said the six new police inspectors were needed because there were some stations that were not run by police officials.
Ideally, each police station should be headed by ranked officer.
Because of the lack of ranked officers, they had to let non-commission officers (those ranked SPO4 and below) to head the stations.
Digal also said some officials were also on leave to study some courses for a few months.
Posters
The six are now assigned to different units in the CPPO.
Regarding the upcoming elections, Valmoria said they are still waiting for guidelines from the Comelec regarding designated poster areas.
This is so they can help put down illegally posted campaign flyers and posters in their areas.
Valmoria said his men can also tap the barangay tanods and auxiliaries to help them take down these campaign materials. (MEA/JST)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 18, 2007 issue)
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