5 top cops to submit report card on crime

Passing grade or failure?

Commanders of the five police districts in Metro Manila will reveal to the public their accomplishments in their battle against crime at the end of the month.

Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, who heads the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said the accomplishment report – or report card – will be used as basis for determining whether the police commander will be retained or relieved from his post.

"The five police district directors were given until Sept. 31 to submit their report cards. General Velasco will be guided by the report card whether to retain or give them their diploma or walking papers," said Superintendent Julius Abanes, NCRPO spokesman.

Earlier, Velasco said he wanted "the best and the brightest officials" to man the metropolis’ police districts in order to accomplish his mission of ridding the streets of all forms of criminality.

When Velasco assumed his post on July 29, he gave district directors who have exhibited poor performance in the first six months of the year a deadline of up to the end of the month to improve.

Abanes did not say who among the five police district directors are poor performers.

But two of them, Senior Superintendents Marcelino Franco Jr., and Napoleon Castro, of the Northern and Central Police Districts, respectively, were new in their posts.

Senior Superintendent Pedro Bulaong, of the Western Police District (WPD) assumed his post only in August. Only Chief Superintendents Rolando Sacramento and Jose Gutierrez of the Eastern and Southern Police Districts, respectively, were considered old guards in their posts.

Abanes clarified, however, that regardless of how long they’ve been in office, all five district directors will have to show a report card by the end of this month.

Of the five, it seems only Sacramento is now in serious danger of losing his post.

In charge of the Eastern Police District, Sacramento covers the municipality of San Juan where two children of Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma were kidnapped recently.

It was also in San Juan that an P8-million robbery happened this month, making it tougher for Sacramento to retain his post, sources said.

The sources noted that even Interior Secretary Jose Lina was disgusted over Sacramento’s shortcomings, particularly his failure to set up a dragnet to catch the men who abducted Ledesma’s children.

Sacramento’s men were informed of the kidnapping shortly after it happened through police hotline 117.