NAGA CITY -– Surprised, nay, shocked by the PNP Regional Command’s naked arrogance to reassign anew the 14 policemen from the Naga City PNP who have been ordered by the court to stay in their original posts pending a case for habeas corpus filed in their favor, the Naga City Peace and Order Council (NCPOC) last week strongly passed a resolution enjoining the national command of the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame to hold in abeyance the said reassignment order.

        The PNP Naga had received a facsimile message from Police Chief Superintendent Edgardo E. Acuna, acting Director for Personnel and Records Management wherein the 14 Naga policemen were being reassigned effective September 15, 2007 from their original command to the so-called PHO, or Police Holding Office in Camp Crame, Quezon City, for unexplained assignment.

        PHO is known in the police parlance as a “freezer” wherein police officers are confined without specific assignments, or are in “floating” status.

        The NCPOC resolution warned that the new order of reassignment of the 14 policemen would be violative of the Order of Regional Trial Court, Branch 21, which provides for the status quo until after Special Case No. 2007-0047 had been terminated.

        The 14 policemen had earlier been ordered detailed at the PNP Regional Command in Camp Simeon Ola, for unexplained reason at the height of the election campaign, hence the case for status quo.

        Likewise, the resolution reminded the PNP Command that the same PNP personnel were the subject of a habeas corpus case before Regional Trial Court Branch 19, which is now pending appeal before the Court of Appeals.

        The same resolution which was collectively passed by the 30-member peace and order council noted that no less than the Court stated that public safety in Naga City would be compromised by the untimely reassignment of the subject officers and that “the right of the local government to be consulted on any reassignment is recognized by law.”

        The PNP order has been strongly resented by the city’s populace because of the fact that the city police force was and remains to be undermanned and had to be augmented instead, especially during the height of the celebration of the Penafrancia fiesta.

        Naga City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo could not understand why the PNP Command is bull-headed in reassigning the men to a new assignment, if there was any urgent task there, when in fact the local police force is not sufficient enough to combat petty crimes obtaining in the city, and that jueteng, whose operators are known to both the PNP regional and national commands, has been reported to be resurging in the province with impunity.