MANILA – Police Lieutenant General Cesar Hawthorne Binag, former Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) director, has been appointed the new commander of the task force leading law enforcement efforts during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Binag, deputy chief for operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), is taking over as head of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, its former chief and PNP deputy chief for administration Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar announced Sunday.
Binag, the third highest police official in the PNP, served as PRO-6 director from May 2017 to June 2018. He is known in Camp Crame as a soft-spoken general who prefers to work than to release public statements, much more speak with the media during regular press conferences.
Usually in administrative work, Binag chaired numerous key committees and groups like the PNP’s Internal Cleansing Committee which oversees the so-called “revitalized” internal cleansing program to weed out bad cops in the force.
He was also the chair of the PNP study group that crafted guidelines for the “new normal” for the PNP under the pandemic.
Beyond PMA, Binag graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a Master’s degree in Public Administration in 2011. He also holds a Master’s degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management. He is set to retire in April 2021.
The PNP defines Joint Task Force COVID Shield as the “enforcement arm” of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease in the implementation of quarantine rules and protocols.
The task force is made up of members of the PNP, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Fire Protection./PN
