MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Debold Sinas said Monday that he had ordered the suspension of the localization of deployment for police officers, which was one of the main thrusts of his predecessor, retired Gen. Camilo Cascolan.
Sinas said he made the move because the program affects the PNP’s campaign against criminality and other operations.
“I already stopped it. We have procedures on how to transfer. We have procedures kung paano itatransfer ‘yung mga tao namin, at alam po nila kung paano nila ‘to gagawin,” he said in a press briefing.
(I already stopped it. We have procedures on how to transfer police officers. We have procedures on how to transfer our people and they know how to do this.)
“I momentarily hold it para po hindi mas lalong mag-exodus ng mga police. Kasi ang nangyari, may pandemic pa tayo, tapos ikot nang ikot ‘yung mga tao natin,” he added.
(I momentarily put it on hold so that there would be no exodus of police officers. Because what happens is we still have a pandemic and yet our personnel are going around the country.)
Sinas said the redeployment of around 4,000 to 5,000 PNP personnel to their home provinces defeats the purpose of stopping the spread of COVID-19.
He said the PNP is also not sure whether or not the police officers who have been reassigned to other places were infected with the coronavirus.
However, those who have already been sent to their hometowns will not be ordered to return to their previous assignments, according to Sinas.
The localization of deployment for police officers was one of the main programs of Cascolan in his brief leadership in the PNP aimed at prioritizing the welfare of its personnel. Zac Sarao, trainee
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