Relieved Bulacan cop chief back at CIDG

Controversial Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina, who was replaced as Bulacan police director, as what local officials had clamored, is again heading the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group – National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR).

The STAR gathered that Dolina will formally assume the CIDG-NCR post, which he held prior to his Bulacan appointment, tomorrow, or three days after he was replaced as Bulacan police director by Senior Superintendent Allen Bantolo.

Dolina and Bantolo belong to Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1983.

It was during Dolina’s term as CIDG-NCR chief when police and the military arrested six Magdalo soldiers and then fugitive, now Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who were implicated in a foiled coup against the Arroyo administration in February last year.

Senior Superintendent Leo Marzan, outgoing chief of the CIDG-NCR, will be assigned as deputy of Senior Superintendent Felipe Fojas, Laguna police director.

A police source said Dolina’s relief as Bulacan police director was a decision of the Philippine National Police (PNP) leadership and not an order by the court, as Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza and mayors had worked on.

The source said Camp Crame thought that it was time for Dolina to move on and leave Bulacan, thus ending the animosity between him and provincial officials.

With Dolina now out of the picture, Bulacan officials have pushed for the re-appointment of former provincial police director Superintendent Jesus Gatchalian.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, however, maintained that the PNP would not reinstate Gatchalian.

“Gatchalian’s return as Bulacan police chief will never happen because it is never the PNP policy to return provincial police chiefs to their previous assignments,” he earlier said.

Puno earlier warned Bulacan executives, who signed a resolution of withdrawal of police support, that they could be held liable for dereliction of duty if their move would “jeopardize” the peace and order efforts of the provincial police.

Contrary to the claim of Mendoza and Bulacan mayors that the peace and order in the province had deteriorated since Dolina’s appointment, Puno credited Dolina for dismantling a big shabu laboratory in Bulacan, the capture of several ranking New People’s Army members, and the apprehension of loads of “hot” meat, among other accomplishments.