PRO-6 chief wants non-PNP offices out of Camp Delgado

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Police Regional Office-6 director, Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz Jr., has decided to ask non-PNP offices out of Camp Delgado following the fire and explosion that destroyed several offices and properties inside the police headquarters.

Cruz said his office is now drafting a proposal for military units, holding offices in Camp Delgado, to vacate the area. “We would ask them to relocate kasi malalaki naman ang mga military camps and we are cramping on this 6-hectare area,” he said.

Several military units hold office inside Camp Delgado when the Regional Unified Command was established during the Marcos regime.

Cruz cited the need for military offices, especially the Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD), to be located outside of populated areas, and that explosives and similar ordnance should be kept in isolated areas for proper disposition.

Yesterday morning, Philippine Army Chief, Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes, inspected the burnt office of the EOD of the Army Support Command (ASCom). Aside from military offices, the Office of Civil Defense-6 is also co-located at Camp Delgado.

Millions worth of firearms and police equipment were destroyed by the fire and explosion early morning of Wednesday. All musical instruments and office equipment in the affected offices, as well as personal belongings of policemen, were burned. The explosion also destroyed adjacent buildings.

It was believed that the fire started at the EOD office, the building of which was built in the 1960s. Fire probers initially figured short circuit of electrical wiring as the cause of fire.

Captain Noel Frias, chief of EOD-ASCom, suffered 60 second degree burn after he tried to put off the fire. (FREEMAN)