MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang justified yesterday the appointment of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Deputy Director General Nicanor Bartolome amid claims that more senior officials were griping about getting bypassed.
Interviewed over radio dzRB, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said it did not matter that Bartolome was from Tarlac or that his class adopted the sisters of President Aquino, because his
“record and performance” should speak for themselves.
“And from what we have heard, it (appointment) was very well received by our fellow workers in the PNP,” Valte said.
She said Bartolome was instructed by President Aquino not to let the people down and continue the reforms instituted by his predecessor, Director General Raul Bacalzo.
Valte noted that curbing illegal jueteng operations and other forms of criminality were part of the President’s marching orders for Bartolome.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, on the other hand, said that while President Aquino directed him to go after criminal syndicates, his anti-crime drive should cover illegal gambling operators.
“Illegal gambling has flourished again and is very rampant nationwide. It destroys the moral fiber of our society. It encourages laziness and promotes a wrong virtue of relying on good luck. We must stamp out all forms of illegal gambling,” Evardone said, adding that the new PNP chief would be effective in fighting illegal gambling “if he keeps his nose clean.”
He said Bartolome could leave a distinct legacy as PNP chief if he succeeds in stamping out jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling, but he should also prioritize cyber crimes.
A breath of fresh air
Bartolome’s appointment as the PNP chief was seen as a welcome development in Mindanao.
While a junior officer, he was feared in Central Mindanao for being tough on hardened criminals and admired for his backchannel dialogues with juvenile offenders who are now either elected officials or occupying key positions in various government offices in the region.
He was also known for helping work out the enlistment to the now defunct Philippine Constabulary – and later into the PNP – of dozens of Muslim and Christian applicants from poor families in the adjoining North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
A member of the Philippine Military Academy Mapitagan Class of 1980, Bartolome served most of his junior years as a military field operator in Central Mindanao.
Fresh from the PMA as a young lieutenant, he saw action as platoon leader with the 54th Philippine Constabulary (PC) Battalion in Maguindanao and with the 441st PC Company in Lanao del Norte from 1980 to 1982, and later as executive officer of the 457th PC Company in North Cotabato, as intelligence and operations officer of the Cotabato Metrodiscom until 1984.
For two years in a row, 1983 and 1984, Bartolome was chosen PC Junior Officer of the Year in Central Mindanao and PC Junior Officer of the Year (nationwide) in 1985.
In all his 11 years of combat duty in Mindanao, Bartolome earned ten Military Merit Medals, seven Military Commendation Medals, 17 Medalya ng Kagalingan, a Bronze Cross Medal for bravery, two Medalya ng Kadakilaan for heroism, the Mindanao-Sulu Campaign Medal and the Anti-Dissident Campaign Medal.
Bartolome served as PNP spokesman under three PNP chiefs from 1999 to 2001 before assuming other staff assignments in the next four years.
Born in Gerona, Tarlac on March 16, 1957, Bartolome is married to physician Noemia Bartolome, a government pathologist and also a registered nurse, who studied nursing while a senior staffer of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center. They have two children.
Bartolome’s wife hails from Alamada, a booming agricultural town in the first district of North Cotabato. – Jess Diaz, John Unson