Benjamin Acorda Jr.
Two weeks after taking over as chief of the Philippine National Police, Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. has implemented a reshuffle affecting the third and fourth highest posts in the command group of the national police force.
Maj. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, the third highest-ranking PNP official as deputy chief for operations and one of the contenders for PNP chief before Acorda’s appointment, moved down to become head of the Directorate for Plans. Appointed as his replacement was Lt. Gen. Michael John Dubria, the fourth highest ranking official as the chief of the directorial staff (TDCS).
Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Peralta, on the other hand, vacated his post as chief of the Directorate for Operations (DO) to move up to TDCS, replacing Dubria.
Estomo will take the place of Maj. Gen. Bernard Banac, who now heads the Directorate for Information and Communications Technology Management. Banac took over the post of Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, who retired on May 7.
Brig. Gen. Leo Francisco, the director of the Police Region Office in Western Visayas, will head the DO.
The revamp took effect on Monday.
Emmanuel Peralta
At the same time, Acorda ordered intelligence units to strictly monitor around 3,000 “erring” police officers and file charges against them as part of ongoing efforts to purge the PNP of rogue lawmen.
‘Pursue case buildup’
“We have been monitoring these personalities, these scalawags and my instruction is for our intelligence operatives to make sure that they will not be able to commit illegal activities again,” he told reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Tuesday.
“We will be conducting continuous monitoring; we will pursue the case buildup against them,” he added.
According to the PNP chief, some of the offenses committed by the errant police officers were extortion and illegal drug activities.
Acorda earlier said that he would implement “radical” policies to ensure “honest law enforcement operations,” including the possibility of dissolving the Special Operations Unit (SOU) of the controversial Drug Enforcement Group (DEG), whose officers were found to be involved in pilfering seized drugs, particularly during the Oct. 8, 2022, operation in Manila where almost a ton of “shabu” (crystal meth) worth P6.7 billion were confiscated.
Michael John Dubria
Among those arrested was dismissed Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr., an intelligence officer of the DEG-SOU in the National Capital Region and the owner of the office building where the drugs were found.
As part of the PNP’s internal cleansing, commanders heading drug enforcement units—from the station level up to the national headquarters—may be dismissed from the police service for failing to investigate personnel who might be involved in illegal drugs.
Acorda also ordered “stricter” background checks among all current and incoming antinarcotics police officers to prevent a repeat of Mayo’s case. Although he was sent to Mindanao as punishment for his alleged involvement in illegal drugs in 2016, he was still recruited as DEG intelligence officer later on.
“The anti-illegal drug campaign shall be done by ensuring the proper vetting of DEG and drug enforcement units personnel to make sure that only those who have successfully undergone an honest vetting process will be assigned with anti-illegal drug units,” Acorda said. INQ
RELATED STORY:
PNP chief reshuffles senior police officials