Ex-UN peacekeeper and Harvard grad is new chief of PNP information office

A Harvard graduate and former member of the United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Missions in various countries will take on the tough job of being the “mouthpiece” of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

PNP chief Dir. Gen. Oscar D. Albayalde announced Friday the assignment of Sr. Supt. Benigno B. Durana Jr. as the new chief of the PNP Public Information Office (PIO), replacing Chief Supt. John Bulalacao.

Aside from being the official police spokesperson, Durana will also manage the press briefings of top officials like Albayalde and the strategic communications of the PNP.

Durana’s strong background in strategic communications and public administration may have been Albayalde’s basis for his appointment.

According to his personal data sheet issued by the PNP-PIO, Durana finished mid‐career Master in Public Administration at Edward S. Mason Program on Public Policy and Management at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2013.

He last held position in November 2017, he assumed the post of team leader at the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in Italy, a position he held for two years.

Durana has served in several other UN peacekeeping and observer missions.

From June to September 2017, he served as senior police adviser of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau and from September 2008 to July 2009, he worked as a deputy senior police adviser of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia.

He also served as chief of the strategic information department of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor from December 2001 to January 2003.

Locally, Durana has served at the PNP Directorate for Operations as chief of the Internal Security Operations and the Law Enforcement divisions from August 2013 to April 2015.

Prior to this, he was assigned as the chief of the Intelligence Research Center from August 2010 to June 2012 and senior executive assistant at the office of the Chief PNP from September 2009 to 2010.

In January 2007 to September 2008, Durana served as provincial director of Aklan.

Over the past 15 years at the PNP, Durana has advised senior police leaders and other government officials on strategic management and strategic communication.

Like his predecessors, Durana is facing a challenging role of explaining to the public the PNP’s deadly anti-illegal drug campaign, which has killed thousands of mostly poor Filipinos and a subject of legal questions, including a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court.

Durana, a member of Philippine Military Academy Maringal Class of 1988, will also explain the developments on Albayalde’s internal cleansing program that aims to increase discipline among policemen and weed out rogue cops.

The spokesperson is a graduate of Doctor of Philosophy in Peace and Peace and Security Administration at Bicol University in 2004 and Master in Public Administration at the University of the Philippines in 1996.  /vvp