PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Benigno Durana. INQUIRER.net file photo
Published: 11:48 a.m., July 14, 2018 | Updated: 10:54 p.m., July 14, 2018
The Philippine National Police (PNP) disputed the claim of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that he was left without personal protection after the PNP recalled two police officers from his security detail.
Senior Supt. Benigno Durana, spokesperson of the PNP, said Trillanes still had six bodyguards even without the two police officers.
Durana said two of Trillanes’ escorts were from the Special Detail Unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, two from the Philippine Navy and two more from the Senate Security Bureau.
Durana explained that the two police officers were pulled out because of an old PNP regulation, called the Alunan doctrine, that government officials should only have two PNP bodyguards.
READ: Trillanes loses police escorts
Protocol
But Durana admitted that he was unaware if the PNP informed Trillanes of the police officers’ withdrawal.
“We will check whether this simple protocol has been observed by those concerned,” he said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed on Saturday that two police officers were indeed withdrawn from Trillanes’ security detail, but only because he already had too many bodyguards.
Roque said the police officers could be more useful fighting crimes.
“Let’s allow our PNP to keep our communities safe please,” Roque said in a text message to reporters.
God’s plan
But Trillanes insisted on Saturday that all his eight bodyguards had been pulled out.
He told a forum at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, on Saturday that his supporters should not worry about his safety.
“I know how to take care of myself. I’m OK at the least. I know God has a plan,” the senator said.
At the same time, however, Trillanes said he had asked the PNP and AFP to reconsider their decision to pull out his bodyguards. —With reports from Melvin Gascon and Leila Salaverria
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