74 PNP officials occupy OIC posts

MANILA, Philippines - At least 74 officials, including Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, are occupying sensitive positions in the PNP as OICs.

Like Espina, the OICs – regional directors and their deputies; provincial and city directors; chiefs of police in Metro Manila and heads of various support and administrative units – have limited powers and cannot dismiss or reassign police officers under them.

A police general told The STAR that the OICs have no problem with the PNP’s programmed budget.

“However, they cannot fund new projects, thus they have very limited contingencies,” he said.

As the PNP’s OIC, Espina was allowed to appoint officials to sensitive posts, but only as caretakers.

Espina was the PNP’s deputy chief for operations when the Office of the Ombudsman suspended then PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima for six months last December while he is under investigation for plunder.

When Deputy Director General Felipe Rojas, the PNP’s deputy chief for administration, retired last Dec. 8, Espina – as the most senior official in the police force – was automatically named the PNP’s OIC.

Juggling 3 jobs

At the moment, Espina is not only the PNP OIC but also the caretaker of the DCA and DCO, the two top posts of the PNP.

“Espina is holding the top three sensitive posts of the PNP and we cannot fathom how he could divide his time to handle the problems besetting these positions,” a general said.

Aside from Espina, the other police officials holding their positions in caretaker capacities are Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño of the Special Action Force; Chief Superintendents Ronald Santos of Central Luzon, Erwin Erni of Calabarzon, Asher Dolina of Police Regional Office 8 and Agrimero Cruz of PRO 10; and Senior Superintendent Noel Armilla of PRO Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has jurisdiction over the Mamasapano massacre.

Buddy system

President Aquino announced last week that he would sit down with Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to determine who should replace Purisima, one of his close friends, who resigned after receiving flak for his involvement in the clash that resulted in the deaths of 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Aquino was with top police officials at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame from Wednesday up to the wee hours of the morning yesterday but Espina’s situation was not discussed since he devoted his attention to the families of the slain commandos.

There is a strong clamor for Aquino to appoint a permanent PNP chief and Espina appears to have a strong chance due to his defense of the police commandos during the Senate and House hearings on the Mamasapano massacre.

Rumors circulating in Camp Crame is that Espina will retire as OIC in July to give more time for Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta to clear his name.

Purisima and Petrasanta are Aquino’s close friends – the two men served under the chief executive’s late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

Petrasanta, a former chief of the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office; Purisima and 10 other officials were ordered suspended for six months without pay by the ombudsman last December for an allegedly anomalous contract with a courier firm for the delivery of gun owners’ licenses.

Petrasanta also faces a six-month preventive suspension in connection with the disappearance of 1,004 AK-47 assault rifles that were allegedly sold to the New People’s Army.