CAMP DANGWA, La Trinided, Benguet – Embattled uniformed and non-uniformed personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, alarmed local officials and various sectors regionwide want Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director-General Ronald dela Rosa to immediately institute the appropriate changes in the leadership of the region’s police force because of their alleged insensitivity, grave abuse of power and authority, coddling a drug suspect and violators of local ordinances and undermining the interest of the general public.
Sources from both inside and outside the regional command said members of the regional command group have the nerve to talk about internal cleansing in their speaking engagements but they could not even work out the transfer of a police officer involved in drugs who is working in the office of a ranking police official.
The sources claimed regional police officials allegedly refuse to listen to the suggestions and recommendations of local officials from the different parts of the region to help improve the services of the police because they arrogantly believe they have the monopoly of knowledge and intelligence to the extent that they want to remove the control of the local officials over the police force for them to dictate what they want.
For grave abuse of authority and power, the sources cited the example of what the PRO-COR leadership did to a responsible traffic officer who apprehended the driver and security aide of a top regional official by transferring him to Apayao but not punishing the erring driver and security aide.
Sources revealed PRO-COR will never be the same again if the present members of the command group, who continue to believe in their intelligence as the truth in justifying their actions, will continue to lord it over the regional police office, one that should be handled by Cordillerans based on Administrative Order No. 136.
The concerned sectors want dela Rosa to cleanse the PRO-COR from the presence of non-deserving officials because of their blatant lapses in decision-making that has placed the image of the PNP in a bad light, especially among Cordillerans, for their inability to find reason in rendering fair and just decisions on controversial issues.
The sources disclosed the current members of the regional command group do not have a word of honor in dealing with ordinary and local officials.
By HENT