Baguio mayor hits Cordi PNP brass over police chief

BAGUIO CITY – The city mayor here hit the regional police office for not giving him shortlist for more than two years of qualified senior police officers to head law enforcers of this tourism resort saying this hampered peace and order programs.

Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said he will immediately convene screening committee for the position once the shortlist of is transmitted to his office by the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera.

The local chief executive was informed that the shortlist, which was approved by the National Police Commission en banc in 2014, was already forwarded by the Napolcom-Cordillera Administrative Region office to regional police which, in turn, will transmit the shortlist to the city mayor for the selection of permanent Baguio police chief.

“We had been demanding for the shortlist to be given to us pursuant to the existing rules and regulations but it took them more than two years before such shortlist will be given to us,” Mayor Domogan said.

The screening committee is chaired by the city mayor with members composed of the city administrator, Interior and Local Government Baguio, field office director, city human resource management officer, Liga ng mga Barangay president, city prosecutor and a member of the media, particularly the president of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC).

Domogan said the city will now have a chance to have a permanent chief of police after over three years of having an officer-in-charge so that the city government could work with the BCPO in crafting of long-term peace and order strategies to make the city a peaceful place to study, work, live and do business.

Under the law, local chief executives are given a 5-day grace period to select from the five nominees on who will be given a permanent appointment as the next chief of police.

He said police officials who will be assigned as officers-in-charge of police stations should only serve for a maximum period of 30 days while the shortlist from the PNP headquarters will be transmitted to the local chief executives for the selection of their chiefs of police.

However, the city mayor pointed out that such scenario did not happen in the case of the city for over three years because the PNP assigned an officer-in-charge that served as OIC for nearly two years.

The process starts with the Senior Officers Placement Board of the PNP which will come out with the shortlist of qualified senior officers for the vacant position of chief of police before the list will be submitted to Napolcom en banc for confirmation.

The confirmed list will then be endorsed to the PNP general headquarters which submits the same to the Napolcomregional office, then to the PRO concerned before being transmitted to the local chief executive concerned for the selection of the next chief of police.

Domogan said he does not want to exercise his sole discretion of selecting the next chief of police but he wants to involve concerned stakeholders so that the most qualified BCPO chief will be selected and who will serve the city for the next two years. – Dexter A See