| In
5 years, PNP relieves 9th director in Nueva Vizcaya
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Gov.
Luisa Cuaresma |
Nueva
Vizcaya Gov. Luisa Cuaresma has expressed dismay over the
sudden relief of P/Sr. Supt. Segundo Duran, Jr., the provincial
PNP chief.
Fuming
over the sudden relief of Duran, Gov. Cuaresma said the Philippine
National Police (PNP) will be blamed if crime and drug–related
incidents will increase in the province.
“They
(PNP officials) should have first conferred the matter to
us. We are doing everything we can to stop jueteng. If jueteng
is the only reason for his (Duran) relief, then they should
also relieve other police officials in Cagayan Valley,”
Cuaresma told reporters here.
She
added that once the provincial government gets a copy of Duran’s
relief order, they would file for a Temporary Restraining
Order (TRO) before the court.
Duran,
the 9th provincial director of the Police Provincial Office
(PPO) in a span of five years since Governor Luisa Cuaresma
took the political leadership after the May 2004 national
and local elections in the province, sat as police provincial
director for eight months.
P/Chief
Supt. Ameto Tolentino, Regional Director of Police Regional
Office 2, in a press statement, said he was surprised by the
sudden relief of Duran whom he praised for his numerous accomplishments
especially on the reduction of criminal and drug-related activities.
“I was impressed on his accomplishments and even lobbied
for his retention. But the decision came from higher officials
that is why we are coordinating this to the local officials,”
he said.
Duran,
who started his police career during the height of communist
insurgency in the province in the late ‘80s as group
commander of the defunct 131st Philippine Constabulary based
in Aritao town was one of the instrumental officials in leading
police operations which resulted in the neutralization of
communist rebels.
It
was during Duran’s stint in 1987 that the governor’s
husband Bambang mayor Benjamin ‘Boyie’ Cuaresma
II was abducted and beheaded by the communist guerillas during
the election campaign.
The
sympathy of the mayor’s supporters was given instead
to his wife, Luisa who ran and won as mayor of Bambang town
which later catapulted her as governor.
Cuaresma
said Duran should even be commended for doing his role in
the province such as the neutralization of robbery-hold up
group, victimizing farmers in Kasibu town, arrest of suspected
drug peddlers leading to the reduction of drug trafficking
in the province and the organization of various groups in
the province such as the Furniture Makers Association (FMA),
PC-INP-PNP Retirees Association (PIPRA) and the Rebel Returnees
Association (RRA) among others.
The
Philippine National Police (PNP) has reportedly relieved P/Sr.
Supt. Segundo Duran, Jr. here over the alleged proliferation
of jueteng in the province, triggering protests from provincial
officials. (PIA NVizcaya)
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