SOME local mayors are worried about their security following the fatal attacks on local executives in the country.
After all, it’s not every day that you read about a sniper shooting dead a mayor during a flag-raising ceremony outside City Hall, because that was what happened to Tanauan City, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili last Monday. And then, the following day, Gen. Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote was killed when two men on a motorcycle drove up near his sports utility vehicle and opened fire after he left the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System office at the National Irrigation Administration compound in Cabanatuan.
So yes, they have every reason to have the heebie-jeebies.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza is one of them.
She admitted that she started to get scared after she learned about the violent end of Halili and Bote, although she was quick to add that there must have been a “strong motive” behind their killings.
The Philippine National Police did assure mayors that as long as they are not involved in illegal activities then they have nothing to worry about.
Unfortunately, “illegal activities” can mean a lot of things. And being linked to the illegal drug trade is but one of them.
So yes, some mayors should be worried.
Atty. Rene Burdeos, former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) 7 director, had said that if a mayor wanted to have additional security, he or she could ask the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7.
Those who were stripped of police powers by the National Police Commission could hire their own goons, I mean, security or they could always carry a gun.
Then I read yesterday that the PRO 7 recalled all police escorts assigned to mayors in Cebu and told them to return to their original units.
Apparently, Burdeos didn’t get the memo, which would be understandable considering that he retired last Thursday so he probably was out of the loop.
Senior Supt. Julian Entoma, PRO 7 Regional Operations and Plans Division chief, told SunStar that PRO 7 Director Debold Sinas had issued the order.
Entoma said that this should been done after the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections last May but it was postponed following the relief of Sinas’s predecessor, Chief Supt. Robert Quenery.
As for Sinas’s order, this was based on President Rodrigo Duterte’s instruction to the PNP to limit the number of police escorts to two to prevent mayors from “abusing their police security privileges.”
But all is not lost.
Mayors who are losing their police escorts can apply for security again.
If, and it’s a big IF, the request is approved, the mayor will get the maximum two escorts. And the escorts must not leave the city or town where he or she was elected.
Gov. Hilario Davide III said that hiring private security personnel has become a necessity, especially if the official has been receiving death threats. But then he said that he also understood why the PRO 7 had to recall police escorts, considering the region lacks police manpower.
Of course.