BAGUIO CITY – The leadership of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera recently transmitted to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan the shortlist of the qualified senior police commissioned officers who are the aspirants for the position of City Director of the Baguio city Police Office (BCPO) that is about to be vacated for the lapse of the 2-year tour of duty of the incumbent chief.
Included in the shortlist that was transmitted to the local government by PRO-COR regional director Chief Superintendent Rolando Z. Nana are Ifugao Provincial Police Office officer-in-charge Senior Superintendent David K. Peredo, Senior Superintendent Agustin Juan Telllo, Senior Superintendent Giovani C. Maines, PRO-COR regional intelligence chief Senior Superintendent Elmer Ragay and former BCPO City Director Senior Superintendent George Daskeo.
The local chief executive is given a maximum of 10 days from the shortlist on who will succeed outgoing BCPO City Director Senior Superintendent Ramil L. Saculles who is about to complete his 2-year tour of duty by the end of this month.
Domogan that the selection of the local chief of police is quite unique in the city for the past several years because a local screening committee composed of city department heads and private sector representatives will be tasked to screen the applicants and subsequently vote on who will be their choice to become the next chief of police.
Among the criteria embraced by the local screening committee in the selection process include availability, performance, programs, results of interview and other aspects of being a well-rounded police officer.
Under the screening process, all the applicants will be required to undergo the interview of the panel members and present their programs on how to sustain the anti-criminality, anti-terrorism and peacekeeping efforts that will make the city a better place to study, work, live and do business.
Domogan explained that one of the challenges that will confront the incoming local police chief is how to sustain the recent achievement of BCPO that made Baguio city as the 6th Safest Cities in Southeast Asia based on the perception of visitors through an online database.
Under the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 6975 or the law that created the Department of the Interior and Local government and the Philippine National Police, the PNP is mandated to submit to the local chief executive concerned a shortlist of qualified senior police commissioned officers duly screened by the Senior Officers Placement Board (SOPB) from where the local police chief will be chosen from.
Further, the tour of duty of an officer-in-charge who will be assigned to head a local police force will only be 30 days to give a chance for the concerned local chief executive to select the chief of police of his or her police office.
Daskeo served as BCPO officer-in-charge from January 2016 to June 2016 before being selected as the permanent City Director in June 2016 before he was relived from his post and reassigned to the Directorate for Plans in Camp Crame in October 2016.
By Dexter A. See
