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Monday, March 14, 2005
Intel officer is new police force chief
MANILA -- An intelligence officer who helped lead the battle against terrorists, insurgents and criminal gangs has been appointed chief of the police force, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's spokesman said Sunday.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Arturo Lomibao, currently the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief directorial staff, will take over the leadership of the 115,000-strong national police force Monday from Edgar Aglipay, who is retiring Sunday.
Lomibao, 54, will inherit a police force that has been struggling against corruption, crime and security concerns including decades-old Marxist and Muslim separatist rebellions and threats from al-Qaida-linked groups blamed for recent deadly bomb attacks.
Another appointment announced Sunday was that of Deputy Chief for Administration Virtus Gil as deputy national security adviser.
Deputy Director General Gil will assume office as one of the President's cabinet men after his retirement on Wednesday.
Lomibao will formally assume the top police post on Monday, during turnover rites at the national police headquarters in Quezon City. Arroyo is expected to grace the event.
A graduate of the prestigious Philippine Military Academy, Lomibao rose to prominence in 1976 for capturing a key communist New People's Army guerrilla leader, Bernabe Buscayno.
Lomibao, a native of Mangaldan town in Pangasinan, was the handler of a deep penetration agent who led him to the safehouse of Buscayno in August 1976. This earned him a spot promotion from lieutenant to captain from the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
He finished secondary school at the Mangaldan High School and went to college at the University of the Philippines before he entered the Philippine Military Academy in 1968.
He has a master's degree in public administration and a doctorate in development administration.
Lomibao has headed the police's intelligence and anti-crime units in recent years, supervising many covert operations against suspected insurgents and terrorists.
A member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1972, Lomibao bested for the top police post other contenders like Gil, PNP Deputy Chief for Operations Reynaldo Velasco, PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force Ricardo de Leon, and Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes chief Director Rolando Garcia, who are all Aglipay's mistahs (classmate) in PMA Class 1971, as well as Southern Tagalog police chief Director Oscar Calderon of PMA Class 1973 and Metro Manila police chief Director Avelino Razon Jr. of PMA Class 1974. (JMR/AP)
(March 14, 2005 issue)
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