ON the day of his retirement, the outgoing Philippine National Police chief, Director General Ricardo Marquez, thanked President Aquino for choosing him to lead the police force despite having no personal ties with the President.
“Majority of my predecessors had close personal ties with the Presidents who chose them. I did not have that privilege. Before my appointment, the President did not know me personally. Some people in my situation would have considered this as a serious disadvantage,” Marquez said on Tuesday in his valedictory speech, which lasted for almost 40 minutes.
On July 16 last year, Marquez formally assumed office. Being the chief of the 160,000-strong force was Marquez’ “greatest honor and the biggest challenge of (his) career.”
Marquez’s appointment came following the suspension of Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta.
Petrasanta was suspended by the Ombudsman over the missing 1,004 high-powered firearms that turned out to have been sold to the New People’s Army.
The former PNP-Firearms and Explosives Office head, who once headed the Presidential Security Group assigned to Aquino, was believed to be the “PNP chief in waiting.”
“On the contrary, I saw it as a blessing, a source of inspiration and motivation. My relationship with the President would be a classic tabula rasa, a blank slate upon which both of us could write many good things,” he said.
Describing himself as a “virtual unknown,” Marquez, a son of a poor farmer in Maragondon, Cavite, said he believes that his appointment was a “matter of destiny.”
“Mr. President, I am grateful that you gave me the opportunity to head the PNP. I treasured your trust and confidence in me as a precious gift. And in the past eleven months and two weeks, I opened that gift every morning with one wish: that under my leadership, the PNP would exceed your expectations,” he said.
Aquino witnessed the retirement honors given to Marquez on Tuesday, a privilege not all previous PNP chiefs enjoyed, in a ceremony at Camp Crame.
Marquez, a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Sandigan” Class of 1982, chose to retire early to give the incoming President Rodrigo Duterte a free hand in choosing the new PNP chief.
