Only hired civilians can drive police cars

City Hall officials are reminding the police authorities that only civilian drivers hired by the city are to be allowed to drive the vehicles that the city has assigned to the police.

City planning officer Nigel Paul Villarete said Mayor Tomas Osmeña has a standing order that only the civilian drivers hired by City Hall are to be allowed to drive the city-owned police vehicles. He asked the police officials to look into why the mayor''s order was not properly implemented after several vehicular accidents involving police cars.

"Mao na ang policy ni mayor nga civilian drivers ang padad-on, on the presumption that our drivers are really drivers, trained as such, di lang kay kamao mo-drive," he said.

"Policemen are trained in police work, they may know how to drive but they were not trained for it and that''s not their work," he added.

Some of the vehicular accidents involving police vehicles driven by policemen and not by civilian drivers includes the controversial incident where a taxicab was hit by an Innova patrol car after it brought a woman to a motel.

Another Innova patrol car also driven by a policeman figured in another accident at the South Road Properties while responding to an alarm.

The latest accident to take place happened in barangay Pamutan where a Nissan Terrano assigned to the police rammed a house and killed a teenage girl and hurt two others.

It was found out SPO1 Cesario Torregosa''s drivers license was already expired and the vehicle was still not registered with the Land Transportation Office. - Rene U. Borromeo/BRP