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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Saturday, May 20, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The newly appointed Negros Island Region police director assumed office yesterday.
Chief Superintendent Edmund Gonzales promised to eliminate illegal drugs and illegal gambling in the region.
Prohibited drugs are “interconnected with other types of criminality,” he told the press after the turnover ceremony in a hotel.
Anti-illegal gambling operations will continue as well, said Gonzales, who replaced the retiring Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban.
Gonzales issued a marching order to all Negros police officers to eradicate illegal drugs and related crimes. He also vowed to give attention to the “internal cleansing” of the regional police force.
Gonzales said he and Gumban shared similar sentiments: the performance of all chiefs of police must be examined.
The new Police Regional Office 18 (PRO-18) director promised to be fair in dealing with officers accused of wrongdoing.
Unless there is strong evidence against them, they will not be relieved from their posts and reassigned in other regions, said Gonzales.
Several Negros police officers linked to the illegal drug trade, mostly as alleged protectors, since the government’s intensified antidrug campaign started last year have been transferred to other regions.
Gonzales promised to review their cases and lobby with the Philippine National Police national headquarters for a “fast reinvestigation.”
Moving them to other assignments pending solid evidence of their involvement in drugs is “unfair,” he stressed.
As Gonzales assumed the PRO-18 directorship, Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, acting city police director, disclosed to the press the names of five suspected “big-time” drug personalities here.
Wanky said they gathered the names from intelligence information provided by suspected drug dealers and users who either surrendered to the police or were arrested, and from drug suspect Ricky Serenio.
Serenio was a self-confessed former member of the Berya drug group who linked several law enforcers to the illegal drug trade.
Wanky mentioned Berya Tolentino and Mohammed Camaria, whom he said Serenio previously tagged as the “main supplier” of prohibited drugs not only in this capital city but in the entire Negros Occidental.
“This is a product of our intelligence efforts, and we are now finding a way to find hard evidence against these individuals,” Wanky said.
Toletino and Ramy Poja have warrants of arrest with the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), Wanky said without specifying the charges. The acting BCPO director also mentioned Nolito Cuadra and Dindo Barcillo.
Wanky said he was set to brief Gonzales about these information.
Meanwhile Gumban said he was motivated by the values of President Rodrigo Duterte: love of country, subordination of personal interests to the common good, and concern and care for the helpless and marginalized.
“I carried them throughout my leadership here at the PRO-18, and as I pass on the leadership to the incoming regional director, may you also be inspired by these values,” he said, addressing Gonzales.
Gumban, who was retiring from the police service on his birthday tomorrow, and Gonzales were Ilonggos. Gonzales was a native of Lambunao, Iloilo.
Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Ramon Apolinario graced the turnover ceremony./PN
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