When President Bongbong Marcos, Jr. was about to appoint a replacement to the then outgoing PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr. we were strongly rooting for Lt. Gen. Michael John Dubria from Davao City. By that time the estrangement of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte and Marcos, Jr. was already fast developing.
As we had expected General Dubria was not selected. We were dismayed as we were hoping that Dubria will get the Presidential nod. But with what is happening now in Davao City as consequence of the Duterte-Marcos, Jr.’s parting of ways we feel Dubria’s non-appointment is some kind of “blessing in disguise.”
Yes, imagine how would have General Dubria – if he were the PNP chief –balanced his discharging of the PNP Director General’s duties given his being from Davao and working directly under his Commander-in-Chief who is former President Duterte’s nemesis.
We are sure he will be the one in the center of the proverbial “Between the devil and the deep blue sea.”
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No less than PNP Director General Rommel Francisco Marbil was the one strongly denying claims of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio and other Davaoeno leaders during a Senate hearing that the series of relief of police officials at the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), and the withdrawal of majority of the VP’s security personnel were “political harassments.”
Police Regional Office (PRO) XI Director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III had earlier mouthed the same justification – that the relief of officers that started with the DCPO directors down to the station commander level and some men on the ground is not political harassment. The PRO chief said that such move is routine functions of the police leadership if only to improve efficiency of the organization, or to ensure fair investigation when issues involving certain police officials occur.
We agree fully with the General’s claim. However, with the timing of his actions we cannot help but also agree with the assertions of Davao City’s top leaders that the political squabble between the former President and the incumbent has something to do with Torre’s moves.
The relief by Torre of several police officials is in fact a major factor in Davao City’s manifest hesitancy in welcoming him as the new director of the Police Regional Office XI. But slowly it appears that the initial indifference was slowly tapering down. Perhaps the city leaders were already thinking that they just have to live with a police leadership that could not be on their own liking.
Unfortunately for Brig. Gen. Torre III he did certain actions that somehow reinforce the suspicion that the police activities in the city are politics-induced.
There was the so-called “over-kill” serving of arrest warrants on now fugitive Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy, a known close friend of the former President and his daughter VP Sara. The number of law enforcers armed to the teeth who, according to the Pastor’s lawyer, “raided” the main headquarters of the Pastor’s sect and in his other properties suspected to be his sanctuaries, was too glaringly unacceptable to the former President and the top city leadership. The lawmen were out to arrest one single religious leader who is not known to be secured by an army of bodyguards other than possibly his loyal supporters. But they appear to be going to a shooting war.
Then came the PRO XI chief’s order to have the police blotters in all DCPO stations “validated.” The reason is simply General Torre’s suspicion that the entries in the blotters were “manipulated.” Why did he do that? Is the police regional director not ready to believe that in the past many years the crime incidence in Davao City has been on continuous downtrend; that he does not agree to Davao City’s having been awarded “Most Peaceful” and one among “Most livable cities” in the country several times?
Another action the PRO chief did was his willing compliance to the order of PNP Chief Marbil’s directive to withdraw and later restore a very negligible number of VP Sara’s security personnel all not personally known by the VP.
The latest was the installation of a checkpoint at the stretch of C.P. Garcia Diversion Road at the vicinity of the gate of Pastor Quiboloy’s main Cathedral compound. The checkpoint was manned by heavily armed policemen whose uniforms were without name plates.
Locating the checkpoint at the Quiboloy’s headquarter vicinity did not bode well with road users much more by the members of the Pastor’s sect. Many among observers of the checkpoint installation call it “alarming.”
We have no doubt that all those actions adopted by the PRO XI director would appear as validations of the Duterte group’s suspicion that indeed, the assignment of Brig. Gen. Torre as PRO XI director and his subsequent actions are borne out of the estrangement of former political allies Dutertes and Marcos Jr. and his cabals.
Therefore, General Torre III’s endearment to Davao City residents is not likely to come at his own terms and on his determined time table. But we still hope the regional PNP chief will be able to do some kind of miracles in performing his duties so he can earn the respect and adulation of the city officials and residents in due time.
