I WAS surfing the internet for news around the country. Something that would catch my fancy.
After all, reading about Metro Cebu’s flood and how it’s caused by people who insist on dumping their garbage in waterways or who continue to violate the three-meter easement rule gets pretty old quickly.
I mean, what else is new?
Oh yeah, it has been confirmed that Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Royina Garma will soon be retiring from the force to take up a much more lucrative position at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office upon President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders.
Who’d figure that three years ago, the 45-year-old soon-to-be former police official had just left her stint as station commander of the Sta. Ana police in Davao so she could undergo “schooling” at the Davao Regional Training Center on Officers Senior’s Executive Course as part of the requirements for promotion.
Hmm. I should get her number or her email ad. It has been awhile since I’ve won at Swertres. It’s nice to get a “hearing” from the very top.
Of course, I’m just kidding. I would never dare do that to the woman who has made such a difference at the CCPO, where, to quote Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas, “even the comfort rooms are clean.”
Or would I?
Either way, her rise in the police ranks and now, a Cabinet position, may be short of stellar, but it’s definitely meteoric.
Still, I’m sure many will be glued to their phones or tablets as to who will succeed her, especially when two of the contenders—Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 Director Col. Lito Patay and CIDG 8 Director Marvin Marcos—have been linked to extra-judicial killings.
I don’t know any of them personally, but it seems that Colonel Patay has already lived up to his name. From July 2016 to July 2017, he headed “the deadliest police station” in Quezon City where at least 108 persons were killed in its jurisdiction during that period. The public, though, needs to keep in mind that this was during the start of the Duterte administration’s attempt to wipe out the illegal drugs trade in the country. So cut him some slack.
As for Marcos, well, enough said.
Anyway, if it were up to Sinas, Garma would be succeeded by another woman, say, like Col. Angela Rejano, who is the director of the Siquijor Provincial Police Office.
“We already saw what a female official like Garma can do. Women have this image that is incorruptible,” he said.
Interesting bit of news, I admit, but this did not stop me dead in my tracks. Not like the one I read about the manhunt for a drunk man who raped a carabao in Midsayap two weeks ago.