RECALLS REVERSIBLE

Public officials have a month to apply for police security escorts, Chief Supt. Debold Sinas explains Mayor Osmeña, Provincial Board Member Shimura question order to recall mayors’ security details from the PNP

Mayors and governors in Central Visayas need not fear for their safety because they can still have police escorts, the region’s top police official said.

Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director, said that public officials have been given a month to apply with the Police Security and Protection Group for an official security detail and replace their escorts holding a rank of Police Officer 1.

He said he only recalled the two police officers tasked to secure Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot last May, during the barangay and youth council elections.

Cebu Provincial Board (PB) Member Sun Shimura appealed to the PRO 7 chief yesterday to reconsider the decision to recall police escorts from Cebu’s local chief executives, including Mayor Loot, his stepfather.

Shimura, who chairs the PB committee on public safety, peace and order, said he is concerned about the recall, which came amid a series of attacks on mayors and vice mayors in other regions.

“There is a high possibility that criminal elements would attempt to take advantage of the situation and cause harm to my stepfather,” Shimura said.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña also questioned the recall: Is the Philippine National Police (PNP) being fair in its order to recall police escorts and return them to their original units?

He alleged that Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino has several police escorts, but there was no report of them being recalled by the PNP as well.

“I want to know. I am demanding an answer not only as a mayor, but as a taxpayer. Why does he have a lot of bodyguards and why does he use motorcycle cops as his security? Is Dino included or does he get special treatment? Nganong daghan man kaayo ang iyang security? Nobody voted for him. Tingali nahadlok siya (Maybe he’s afraid),” he told reporters.

“All I am saying is that I am not going to ask for security for the simple reason that I don’t want special treatment. I should be treated fairly as all the other mayors, right? I’m just one of the mayors so whatever they are entitled to, I will take advantage of that. But I will not insist on special treatment,” Osmeña added.

Official action

Chief Superintendent Sinas said he merely enforced orders from Camp Crame that operatives with a rank of Police Officer 1 should not serve as close-in security to mayors, governors and other elected public officials.

“This was an instruction from the headquarters that the security detail is official,” he told reporters yesterday.

Within five days last week, four elected officials were murdered by unidentified assailants.

A day after Tanauan, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili was killed by a sniper during a flag-raising ceremony in front of City Hall last July 2, unidentified assailants gunned down General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote.

Last Saturday, Trece Martires City Vice Mayor Alexander Lubigan and his driver Romulo Guillemer were shot dead while they were on their way to Trece Martires-Indang Road.

On the same day, Lanao del Sur Municipal Councilor Nassif Palawan Bansil was shot and killed after five gunmen entered and opened fire in a house where he was in.

Last May, Loot, his wife Maria Luisa, PB Member Shimura and his family were strafed by unidentified assailants while disembarking from a pumpboat in Barangay Maya, Daanbantayan.

The shooting occurred just a day before the May 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

Senior Supt. Julian Entoma, PRO 7 Operations and Plans Division chief, earlier confirmed that an order was issued by Chief Superintendent Sinas to recall all police escorts assigned to local chief executives in Cebu.

He said the order was based on President Rodrigo Duterte’s instruction to the PNP to limit the number of police escorts to two. This was supposedly meant to prevent mayors from abusing their police security privileges.

But mayors who are losing their police escorts can apply for security again.

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 should be treated fairly. TOMAS OSMEÑA

Cebu City Mayor