2 Pangasinan police chiefs sacked

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines  – Two police chiefs in this province have been sacked from their posts following the provincial police director’s two-strike policy on unsolved shooting incidents and the continued operation of jueteng in their respective turfs.

Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, provincial police director, reported this to provincial board members yesterday during the Question Hour where he was invited to talk about the peace and order situation in the province.

Ricaforte, however, requested that the names of the two police chiefs be withheld, but he identified them as coming from Bani and Bayambang towns.

There have unsolved shooting incidents in Bayambang. Last Thursday night, elements of the Special Action Force arrested a number of jueteng collectors there, too.

The STAR learned that the relief order for the Bayambang police chief came from Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo himself.

Ricaforte said he was only continuing his predecessor’s implementation of the two-strike policy where a police chief faces relief from his post if there are two unsolved shooting incidents in his jurisdiction within a month.

He said there are other police chiefs who would suffer the same fate, too.

Asked by sixth district board member Alfonso Bince Jr. how many shooting incidents there have been since he took over as provincial police director last Sept. 8, Ricaforte said 23 cases have been recorded across the province, five of them involving barangay officials.

Of these 23 cases, eight were perpetrated by motorcycle-riding armed men, he added.

“Is there really jueteng in Pangasinan?” Bince asked Ricaforte.

“There (had been) attempts to start jueteng but we were able to prevent its resurgence,” Ricaforte replied, citing good intelligence gathering.

He said there are only guerrilla-type jueteng operations in the province, with the maintainers transferring from one place to another.

Bince said they just wanted to know “who between Archbishop Oscar Cruz who keeps on talking about jueteng (in Pangasinan) and Ricaforte is telling the truth.”