PRO-6 is finalist for best police reg'l office award

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — After more than a decade, the Police Regional Office-6 (Western Visayas) is now aiming to regain its title as the best police regional office.

Director Elpidio de Asis, chief of the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management (DPRM), confirmed the other day that PRO-6 is one of the three finalists for the country’s best PRO in 2011.

The two others are PRO-2 in Cagayan, under Chief Supt. Rodrigo de Gracia, and PRO-13 in Caraga Region under Chief Supt. Reynaldo Rafal.

De Asis said PRO-6’s outstanding record in administration, operations and police community relations, among others, has helped in giving it a good chance of bagging the title after a 12-year drought.

It last won as best police regional office in 1999 during the time of Chief Supt. Jose Ayap, said De Asis who was in the city with his team for the validation of the report earlier submitted by the Directorate for Operations. It already finished validating PRO-2.

The validation was intended to bolster the results of the Annual General Inspection – Operational Readiness Inspection Test and Evaluation (AGI-ORSITE), a PNP-wide activity conducted annually in all police offices and units to assess their operational readiness, observance to PNP policies and prescribed rules and regulations, and judge their overall capability and effectiveness.

Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, PRO-6 director who was slated to be reassigned to a higher police post, said it was an honor to be chosen one of the contenders or finalists for the annual award. “Maraming parameters na sinusukat for one to be able to make it to the top 3. I’m glad we made the cut,” he said.

Querol believed that the number of crimes reported in Western Visayas, improved crime solution efficiency (CSE), implementation of the flagship programs of the PNP, and crime prevention efforts have helped buoyed PRO-6 to its present status. - THE FREEMAN