6 P’sinan police chiefs face relief

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Either they are ineffective or are simply sleeping on their jobs.

Six local police chiefs face relief next week after a performance audit, covering seven months from January to July 31, showed their units had had no apprehensions in the campaign against illegal drugs.

The police chiefs would be placed on "floating" status and would report to the provincial police headquarters.

Superintendent Edgar Basbas, deputy director for operations and vice chairman of the deliberation board of the provincial police, identified the "non-performing" police chiefs as Senior Inspector Jeremias Rasing of Agno, Superintendent Zosimo Fernandez of Bani, Senior Inspector Tomas Obillo of Dasol, Chief Inspector Reynaldo Tamondong of Basista, Senior Inspector Leonardo Tabelin of San Fabian, and Superintendent Bernardo Reamon of Manaoag.

The performance audit covered the four city and 44 municipal police stations in the province. It was conducted by the five-man deliberation board headed by Superintendent Ricardo Tamayo, deputy director for administration.

Basbas said they submitted their recommendation for the relief of the six police chiefs to Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, during a command conference last Friday.

Sandiego said "zero apprehension" either means that the concerned police units were ineffective in their crime prevention efforts, particularly against illegal drugs, or were sleeping on their jobs.

Basbas said the explanations of the six police chiefs were found to be "not satisfactory or too shallow."

He said they reasoned out that there were no "drug-affected" barangays in their respective areas, but upon evaluation, their claims were belied.

The deliberation board is still tackling the cases of three other police chiefs who were asked to submit additional requirements to support their claims.

Another three police chiefs were found to have given satisfactory justifications and thus, were recommended to remain in their posts.

During a command conference last Aug. 1, Chief Superintendent Claudio Cabreros, Region 1 police director, expressed concern about police units not performing well in the campaign against prohibited drugs.

Thus, Cabreros issued a directive warning local police chiefs to shape up or ship out, giving them two weeks to prove their worth.

Meanwhile, Sandiego commended the six "top performing" police chiefs and gave them "cash rewards" for their accomplishments.

They are Senior Inspector Medardo Soriano, police chief of San Quintin, who got a cash reward of P23,000; Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, Urdaneta City, P17,000; Superintendent Alfredo Bascao, Sison, P15,000; and Superintendent Noel Taliño, Dagupan City; Superintendent Jessie Cardona, Alaminos City; and Superintendent Candito Quijardo, Calasiao, P13,000 each.

The cash rewards, which came from the national police headquarters, will be used as part of the operational funds of their respective units against illegal drugs.

Under the reward system, a P1,000 cash reward awaits a police unit for every drug pusher arrested and P5,000 for every barangay certified to be "drug-free," which means all identified drug pushers in the community have been arrested, driven away or killed in encounters.

The clearance, however, has to be certified by the barangay anti-drug abuse council and attested to by the municipal anti-drug abuse council.