PNP chief in Bali for ASEANAPOL

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao left the country yesterday to attend 25th annual six-day conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Chiefs of Police (ASEANAPOL) in Bali, Indonesia.

He was joined by Deputy Director for Administration General Reynaldo Velasco, considered the No. 2 man in the PNP hierarchy.

With Lomibao and Velasco both out of the country, chief drugbuster Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon will be the PNP’s officer-in-charge.

The PNP chief heads a 13-man PNP delegation to the annual meeting of heads of national police agencies of ASEAN member-states.

"High in the agenda of the conference are the prevailing regional crime concerns like international terrorism and transnational drug trafficking," PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said.

Earlier, Velasco said ASEANAPOL member-countries have a standing agreement to closely monitor and exchange information on newly emerging militant and radical groups, and to take action to prevent them from developing into terrorist organizations.

Apart from the PNP, other national police forces attending the conference are the Royal Brunei Police Force, Cambodian National Police, Indonesian National Police, Lao People’s Democratic Republic General Department of Police, Royal Malaysia Police, Myanmar Police Force, Singapore Police Force, Socialist Republic of Vietnam Police and the Royal Thai Police.

Timor, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the People’s Republic of China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Interpol and Europol were also invited as observers to the conference.

In September 2003, the PNP hosted the 23rd ASEANAPOL conference in Manila. The Philippines is one of the founding members of ASEANAPOL with the first conference held in Manila.

Director Oscar Calderon of the PNP’s Chief Directorial Staff, Director Robert Delfin of the Directorate for Intelligence, Directors Isidro Lapena, Quirino dela Torre, Simeon Dizon, Vidal Querol, Eduardo Gador, Chief Superintendent Marcelo Ele Jr., Dante Tejada, Rodolfo Tor and Senior Inspector Gary Tagufa are the other members of the PNP delegation. — Cecille Suerte Felipe