Calingasan new EPD top cop
By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:01:00 11/18/2008
Filed Under: Police, Security (general)
MANILA, Philippines—After months of policing Southern Mindanao and keeping insurgents at bay, Chief Superintendent Lino Calingasan will now take on street crooks and urban criminals in eastern Metro Manila as he takes command of the Eastern Police District.
Calingasan formally assumed his post as the new district director in a turnover ceremony Tuesday, taking over from Chief Superintendent Leon Nilo Dela Cruz, who has been promoted director of the Central Luzon Police.
"It will be a change of scenery, but not so much," Calingasan said in an interview, noting that his stint as the deputy director for administration of the Police Regional Office-Southern Mindanao lasted only 10 months.
The EPD covers the cities of Marikina, Mandaluyong, Pasig and San Juan.
Before his EPD stint, Calingasan said he had been assigned to the Davao region, an area with a high concentration of rebels and insurgents. He said he welcomed the opportunity to fight a different type of crime in Metro Manila.
As EPD director, he said he would prioritize programs to combat street crimes and organized crime syndicates, especially those connected to the drug trade.
In his speech, outgoing National Capital Region Police Office Director Jefferson Soriano told Calingasan that although the district had drastically improved its crime solution efficiency, the stigma of the Pasig shabu "tiangge" (flea market) continued to haunt the entire police force.
In February 2006, narcotics operatives raided the Mapayapa Compound, an illegal drugs market a few meters from City Hall, and arrested dozens of individuals engaged in the buying and selling of shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Calingasan said he would be stepping into the "very big shoes," as he credited Dela Cruz for leading the EPD to its best performance in fighting criminality in recent years.
Dela Cruz, in his remarks, said challenges remained in changing the public's perceptions about the police.
He narrated an anecdote about a traffic enforcer who flagged down a motorist for beating the red light at the corner of Meralco Avenue and Ortigas Avenue.
Dela Cruz said that when the enforcer asked the driver if he didn't see the red light, the driver replied: "Chief, I did see the red light, but I didn't see you."
Addressing Calingasan, he said such preconceived notions about the police remained, and that they must continue working to change these.
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