By AARON B. RECUENCO
The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has formed a committee that will evaluate on whether or not the more than 1,000 Caloocan City policemen who were subjected to mandatory retraining would retain their posts.
This, after more than 100 of them had flunked the retraining program while some either did not attend it or failed to comply with other requirements.
NCRPO chief Director Oscar Albayalde said the committee was strictly tasked to conduct intense vetting process to ensure that only those who passed the retraining would be reassigned to Caloocan City.
“There were 1,076 policemen subjected to retraining but only 972 of them passed,” said Albayalde.
Those who went on AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) and the 40 others who did not surface during the conduct of drug test will be subjected to pre-charge evaluation, according to Albayalde.
“Not all of them will go back to Caloocan, that is why we have evaluation to be done by the committee,” said Albayalde.
Those who passed will start keeping their old posts in Caloocan City, said Albayalde as he said that the return will be done gradually and will be based on the recommendation of the committee.
Those who failed, on the other hand, will have to repeat the program and must pass them before they are deployed again for duty. But they will continue to receive their salary.
It was learned that those who failed had flunked the assessment and the requirements needed to pass every training module. The training was conducted for two months.
But Albayalde was quick to clarify that those who were involved in the killing of Kian delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz were not among those who were subjected to retraining as they were all under restrictive custody.
Yesterday, all those who successfully finished the retraining program attended their graduation at Camp Crame, two of them delivered a speech to tell their story about what they have been through.
Albayalde said the retraining has positive impact on the policemen, saying they have been receiving good reactions from the policemen themselves.
On the part of Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna, who was the chief of police during the controversies that hounded the Caloocan City police, the official said he will not go back to the same post.
“He is undergoing investigation. He will not go back to Caloocan. He is right now the chief of the training of the NCRPO,” said Albayalde.
It was recalled that the entire police force of Caloocan City was sacked due to the Kian and Carl Angelo controversies and was replaced by personnel from the NCRPO.