TOMAS: PNP CAN RECALL MY ESCORTS ANYTIME
PRO 7 official confirms that an order was issued to recall all police escorts assigned to local chief executives in Cebu
If it will improve the peace and order situation, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has no qualms about the order of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 to recall police escorts of Cebu’s local chief executives and return them to their original units.
Earlier, Senior Supt. Julian Entoma, PRO 7 Operations and Plans Division chief, confirmed that an order was issued by PRO 7 Director Chief Supt. Debold Sinas to recall all police escorts assigned to local chief executives in Cebu.
The order came before two mayors in Luzon were gunned down by unidentified assailants.
He said the order was based on President Rodrigo Duterte’s instruction to the Philippine National Police (PNP) to limit the number of police escorts to two.
This is supposedly meant to prevent mayors from abusing their police security privileges.
In an interview via text with SunStar Cebu yesterday, Osmeña said he is willing to turn over his police escorts should he be ordered to do so.
“I have two police escorts in rotation, one per shift. If it will improve our peace and order situation, he (Sinas) can have them. (But) I would like to ask the RD (regional director Sinas), after the mayors are killed, will he return the escorts?” Osmeña said.
A day after Tanauan, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili was killed by a sniper during a weekly flag-raising ceremony in front of City Hall last July 2, unidentified assailants gunned down General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote.
Just hours before Bote’s murder, Osmeña told reporters that he has no plans of adding security because he “doesn’t like the people to see a mayor who is scared.”
“I don’t discuss my security to let the world know. Remember, when Ermita barangay officials were suspended (last year), I volunteered my own security (SPO1) Adonis (Dumpit) to lead the military contingent to secure the barangay. I’m just being consistent. When (former PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa) Bato pulled out my security, I did not choose my replacement lest they be penalized by the vindictive commanders,” he said.
In August 2016, Osmeña was stripped of control and supervision over police matters by the National Police Commission, which led to him losing his three police escorts detailed by the PNP.
But mayors who are losing their police escorts can apply for security again before the PNP’s Police Security and Protection Group.
If the request is approved, Entoma said, each mayor will get a maximum of two escorts. He or she will also not be allowed to bring police escorts outside the city or town where he or she was elected.
I have two police escorts in rotation, one per shift. If it will improve our peace and order situation, he (PRO 7 Director Chief Supt. Debold Sinas) can have them. (But) I would like to ask the RD (regional director Sinas), after the mayors are killed, will he return the escorts?
MAYOR TOMAS OSMEÑA