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Friday, May 19, 2006
New police head picked for Asean security
CEBU CITY -- A general who was selected specifically to help in the security preparations for the upcoming Asean summit took his post as the new head of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas.
Chief Superintendent Eduardo Gador relinquished his post to Chief Superintendent Silverio "Boying" Alarcio Jr. in a ceremony held Thursday afternoon.
A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy class 1976, Alarcio used to head the Police Special Action Force.
This native of Pangasinan also served as provincial director of Cavite.
Alarcio was among the policemen who were in Malaysia for the 2005 Asean Summit observing security preparations there.
It was in Kuala Lumpur that he met Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who later recommended Alarcio to replace Gador.
Alarcio was also behind the discovery that Ramsey Yousef was behind the bomb planted in a Philippine Airlines flight from Cebu to Japan in 1995.
Alarcio, with then Western Police District (WPD) chief Avelino Razon, discovered Yousef's plan to assassinate then Pope John Paul II.
The plan was called Project Bojinka.
This was uncovered when Yousef and a friend turned on a smoke alarm in an apartment in Manila, prompting residents to report this to the police.
While Yousef got away, documents found in the apartment revealed their plans and led authorities to the suspects of the bomb that exploded in the Philippine Airlines flight.
While the bomb failed to damage to the aircraft's gas tank, it killed the Japanese passenger who occupied the seat where Yousef planted the bomb in an earlier flight.
The discovery later led to Yousef's arrest in Afghanistan.
As a member of the Presidential Security Group at that time, Alarcio was assigned to secure the Pope in his visit.
Alarcio was also part of the team responsible for security of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (Apec) summit in 1996.
Alarcio and Razon will once again be working together for the security preparations for the Asean summit in Cebu in December, after Razon was designated task force security commander for the gathering.
Alarcio, in his speech Thursday, admitted that ensuring a successful Asean summit in the midst of terrorism threats was a tall order.
"I know we can do it. The best foundation was put in place by General Gador," he told the men and women of the police regional office.
He said though that before they can achieve this, they needed to heighten their performance levels and that there was no room for lapses.
PNP Chief Arturo Lomibao, for his part, said Gador left a "legacy of outstanding performance" and assured Alarcio was an equally capable professional based on his experience in leadership, command, management and fieldwork. (MEA of Sun.Star Cebu)
(May 19, 2006 issue)
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