PNP chief names more top officials

MANILA, Philippines — Despite mumbling from officials whose “midnight appointments” were canceled or did not get the positions they preferred, Police Gen. Camilo Cascolan, Philippine National Police chief, continued on Thursday to reshuffle top posts in the 205,000-strong force.

Cascolan, who has around two months before he reaches the mandatory retirement age in November, named Police Maj. Gen. Israel Ephraim Dickson to lead the PNP Civil Security Group while Police Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu will be the new director for integrated police operations in the Visayas.

Police Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez will replace Abu as chief of the Bangsamoro regional office while Police Brig. Gen. Daniel Mayoni will replace Rodriguez as director of information technology management service.

At the same time, Police Brig. Gen. Julius Lagiwid was promoted as deputy director for police community relations while Police Col. Eric Noble was designated Directorate for Police Community Relations executive officer.

Clashing points

The appointments were the latest in a series that Cascolan has announced since he became PNP chief on Sept. 2.

Some of his appointments were not welcomed by affected officials and some even raised the issue of demoralization in the ranks of the country’s policemen.

But Cascolan, in a radio interview, dismissed the notion that tens of thousands of policemen would be demoralized because some officials did not get the positions they wanted.

He cited as an example Police Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, the Central Visayas police chief, who felt that he was being demoted when he was offered on Sept. 9 the post of director for integrated police operations in Southern Luzon. Ferro opted to stay as Central Visayas police chief.

But Cascolan said Ferro “was not able to understand the reorganization” and that the reassignment was actually a promotion to a two-star position and opened the way for further promotion.

The PNP chief also stressed that the earlier movement of 11 police officials were mainly due to the retirement or promotion of other officers.

The mumbling against Cascolan began shortly after he canceled what he called a “midnight appointment” made by his predecessor, retired Police Gen. Archie Gamboa.

“I had to cancel an appointment by the former chief PNP. It was a midnight appointment,” Cascolan said in an interview without naming the official.

“There are a lot more officers, too, that deserve to be promoted or deserve to have the position,” he said.