Ex-PAOCTF men appeal reassignments

The 176 policemen and former members of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) have asked the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to reconsider their transfer to various police commands in the country.

In separate interviews yesterday, the policemen maintained they were being deprived of due process and were being transferred simply because they were former subordinates of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was concurrent chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the PAOCTF.

"We were not given due process. Our families are being affected by our relief," said Chief Inspector Arturo Bisnar, noting that they have also filed a separate appeal before the Civil Service Commission.

In their appeal before the Napolcom, the transferred policemen questioned the motive of PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. in ordering their transfer to various assignments all over the country.

Ebdane met with the disgruntled policemen on Nov. 13.

In an earlier interview, Ebdane denied that the policemen’s transfer had anything to do with their former links to Lacson and held that the transfer would be good for their "career advancements."

But the leaders of the group claimed Ebdane refused to listen to their grievances during their Nov. 13 dialogue.

"We were (simply) told not to speak to the media to avoid controversy. Nonetheless, we are abiding with the orders of the PNP chief and we will be reporting to our new posts, as ordered," said the most senior policeman in the group.

"As professional police officers, we are going to follow the orders," another police officer said. "(But) we are not scalawags."

"Naging productive naman ang mga taong ‘yan (These people have also been productive.) So why relieve us?" a third policeman said, claiming that some of their colleagues were "behind" the neutralization of slain Pentagon Gang leader Faisal Marohombsar and the rescue of his victim, four-year-old Patricia Lopez-Chung.

The policemen received their separate transfer orders, signed by PNP personnel chief Director Jose Lalisan Jr., on Nov. 8 and they soon issued a statement describing the order as "unjust and politically motivated."

"We strongly felt and believed that the orders issued by higher headquarters on us were unjust and politically motivated with a touch of personal vengeance towards former members of the PAOCTF," the former PAOCTF members said in their statement.

"The decision to reassign us was unfair as it hit us by surprise. We were denied the right to know the immediate cause of our transfer as most of us were performing regular duties at our respective units," the statement read.

"It was unjust since we are reassigned to police units far from our places of residence. We felt that we were thrown like garbage into the trash," the statement added.

The former PAOCTF members claimed Malacañang ordered Lalisan to sign the reassignment orders, supposedly bypassing Ebdane.