LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Romeo K. Salda criticized the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera for facilitating the alleged untimely transfer and replacement of the chief of the La Trinidad Municipal Police Station without the proper coordination with the municipal government.
Salda branded the transfer and replacement of Police Col. Benson Macliing as wrongly-timed because it was done at the height of the ongoing preparations of the local government for the hosting by Benguet of this year’s Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (CARAA), the Panagbenga festival of nearby Baguio city and the town’s Strawberry Festival by February and March, respectively.
“We were never consulted about the sudden transfer and replacement of Police Lt. Col. Macliing. We were never consulted on the matter which shows the blatant disregard of the PNP to the proper channels of authority as they disregarded the La Trinidad officials on the said issue,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The municipal chief executive pointed out that Macliing’s transfer is in violation of the rules and regulations of the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) that provided that police officers who have less than a year in their present tour of duty cannot be transferred if there are no cases that have been filed against them.
Macliing, who was appointed as the come-backing LTMPS chief in April 2004, was transferred as the acting chief of police of the Tabuk City Police Office and was replaced by Police Lt. Col. Zacarias Dawsen, who was the former chief of the Baguio City Police Office–Traffic Enforcement Unit (BCPO-TEU).
Mayor Salda claimed that the issue is not the ability of the police officers to easily adjust to their new assignment but it is a matter of the respect of the PNP to the local officials of the local government which never happened in the recent transfer and replacement of the LTMPS chief as they were caught by surprise on the sudden change of the assigned chief of police.
According to him, he wrote a letter to the PRO-COR stating the local government’s objections on the said transfer and replacement of the LTMPS chief but he never received a formal response that again reflects the blatant disrespect of the PNP to the local officials.
The municipal council recently passed a resolution that supported Salda’s position on the matter that brought the snowballing objection of the people and officialdom of the municipality on such a gesture of the PNP in outrightly transferring and replacing the LTMPS chief.
He suggested to the PRO-COR to immediately submit to him the shortlist of the qualified police officers from where he will select the new LTMPS chief so that the appropriate process will be observed instead of the PNP just assigning the police officers of their choice to the places that they want to be changed outrightly.
The mayor challenged the PNP to observe the prescribed process in the assignment of the LTMPS chief to ensure that deserving police officers will be able to meet the prescribed standards, especially that Benguet will host this year’s CARAA sports meet and the conduct of the annual Strawberry Festival. By Dexter A. See