ILOILO CITY , Philippines --- Police Regional Office-6 director Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, Jr., in a surprise inspection of police stations in Western Visayas caught the town police station of Ibajay in Aklan without any organic policeman on duty.
Housed in a 3-month old three-story structure, the Ibajay Police Station was just manned by three neophyte cops, all members of the Regional Safety Management Battalion who were just on detailed duty service in that town.
A high-powered firearm and a digital camera were not also securely kept. "Apparently, they left everything to the care of neophyte policemen that were just on detail service," said Querol who did the surprise inspection after lunchtime.
Querol found only one of the neophyte police in uniform while the other one was in PNP athletics uniform. When he asked them where the duty personnel at the time, they pointed to the third floor and it was there that the director found a lone policeman sleeping. The policeman however explained that he was off-duty.
Several minutes later, an organic policeman, a certain SPO2 Flores, arrived. He claimed their station chief, Insp. Frensy Andrade, was attending a post-graduate class. When asked why he left his post, he said that he went home to have lunch with his wife but asked the neophytes to man the station for him temporarily.
Querol said he was disgusted by such lies, and he announced that policemen caught with misdemeanors during inspections will immediately be relieved from their post. They will also be reassigned to not-so-juicy positions, such as in far-flung towns of Western Visayas.
"For the meantime, like what we did in Iloilo, we will transfer them to hardship assignments for them to realize the importance of being dedicated and alert on their work," Querol said. Considering that the offense of the Ibajay men was grave, he will coordinate with Ibajay's mayor for Andrade's relief, he said.
In his other inspections, Querol commended all other police stations in Antique province for being satisfactory. He and his team first visited Laua-an Police Station where all six policemen were present and in proper uniform, and that their female chief of police, Insp. Juvy Guerrero, was out with three of her men to conduct police visibility.
Querol then visited police stations the towns of Barbaza, Tibiao, and Libertad. "We have noted satisfactory results of the inspection because their policemen, duty investigators and duty desk are all alert and in proper uniform," he said.
After Aklan, Querol went to Capiz province and inspected the Mambusao Police Station, also to his satisfaction.
More than a week ago, Querol also did a surprise inspection in Iloilo province where he caught policemen of stations of the towns of Leganes and Zarraga not wearing their uniform.