PNP relieves 49 Bamban cops amid Alice Guo’s suspension, Pogo probe

Forty-nine personnel of Bamban police was relieved from their post to give to PNP’s ongoing investigation to alleged illegal Pogo activities in Tarlac province. (Photo courtesy of Tarlac Police Provincial Office)

MANILA, Philippines — Forty-nine police personnel assigned to Bamban, Tarlac, were relieved from their post after the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the suspension of the municipality’s mayor, Alice Guo, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the 49 personnel from the Bamban Municipal Police Station were relieved to give way to an ongoing investigation in relation to the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogos) activities in the province.

READ: Alice Guo ordered suspended as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac

“Forty-nine PNP personnel ang ni-relieve inilipat regional personnel admin holding unit ng Police Regional Office (PRO) 3 (Central Luzon),” Fajardo said in a press conference on Tuesday.

(Forty-nine PNP personnel were relieved and transferred to the personnel admin holding unit of PRO 3.)

“Sasailalim sila (relieved personnel) sa Focused Reformation and Reorientation and Moral Enhancement for Police Officers sa Subic,” she added.

(They will undergo Focused Reformation and Reorientation and Moral Enhancement for Police Officers in Subic.)

Fajardo added that 49 others from various units within the Police Regional Office Central Luzon will replace the relieved officers and personnel.

In an order dated May 31 released to the media on Monday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires said there are “sufficient grounds to preventively suspend” Guo and two other town officials “considering that there is strong evidence showing their guilt.”

Guo, Municipal Business Permits and Licensing Office officer Edwin Ocampo, and Municipal Legal Officer Adenn Sigua were placed under preventive suspension without pay, pending the resolution of an investigation against them. However, according to the Ombudsman, their suspension must not exceed six months.

The order granted the plea of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to suspend Guo and other municipal officials.

Last week, the DILG filed charges of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Guo, Ocampo, and Sigua for allegedly allowing illegal Pogos to do business in Bamban.

Last May 18, Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. announced that the DILG recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman the preventive suspension of the mayor “to prevent any influence on the continuing investigations of the DILG and other agencies.”