LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The new leadership of the Benguet Provincial Police Office (BPPO) assured concerned stakeholders in the province of its unrelenting and uncompromising efforts to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs to spare the youth from addiction and to achieve the status of Benguet as one of the drug free provinces in the country that was able to successfully implement the marching orders of President Rodrigo Duterte against the proliferation of illegal drugs.
Police Col. Reynaldo Pasiwen, who recently replaced Police Col. Elmer Ragay in the said position as Provincial Director of BPPO, stated that there is no longer a need to deviate from the current marching orders of the PNP chief to curb the proliferation of illegal drugs, ensure aggressive internal cleansing and bring back the trust and confidence of the people to the police force, thus, the need to be aggressive on such programs and projects to achieve lasting peace in the different parts of the country.
He said that he was surprised upon receiving orders from higher authorities for him to assume the aforesaid position that is why he will try to do his best to cascade to the ground the various programs, projects and activities of the local police force to ensure that the proliferation of illegal drugs in the identified drug affected barangays will be prevented the soonest.
In terms of the cleansing of the ranks of the police force from identified rouge cops, Pasiwen pointed out that Benguet is among the police offices in the country that have the most disciplined police personnel, thus, the need for them to sustain such identity to continue enjoying the trust and confidence of the people on their ability to maintain law and order in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The police official claimed that people of Benguet are inherently peace-loving individuals that is why what needs to be done is for the members of the local police force to be able to be in control of the situation and observe utmost discipline in discharging their duties and responsibilities for them to be able to continue enjoying the trust and confidence of the people in the areas that they serve.
According to him, the job at hand is challenging but with the active participation of the police personnel assigned in the 13 municipal police stations and the public, achieving lasting peace in the countryside will be much easier to achieve as what needs to be done is for the identification of the criminals hiding in the rural areas and to effect their immediate arrest so that they will answer for whatever charges that were filed against them.
Pasiwen called on the provincial, municipal and barangay officials to extend to the new leadership of the BPPO the support that they provided to the previous leadership of the same office because what is important is for everyone to cooperate in the implementation of programs, projects and activities that are geared towards achieving lasting peace.
Ragay was reassigned to his old post as the chief of the regional intelligence division of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera after serving his tour of duty with the BPPO for over a year now.
Pasiwen was the former chief of the regional intelligence division of the PRO-COR before being reassigned as head of the BPPO effective last February 19, 2021. By HENT
