By AARON RECUENCO
Following the departure of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde, three names stood out as his possible successor.
With President Duterte reportedly leaning towards respecting the seniority rules in a bid to restore morale in the organization rocked by the drug recycling scandal, the leading candidates are Lt. Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa, the current officer-in-charge and Deputy Chief for Administration; Lt. Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, the number three man being the Deputy Chief for Operations; and Maj. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, the number four man, being the Chief of the Directorial Staff.
Their names have already been recommended both by the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) and Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano.
But who are they and what did they do to deserve the honor of being recommended to occupy the highest police position of the land?
POLISHED ARCHIE
Gamboa is a native of Malaybalay, Bukidnon and a member of Sinagtala Class of 1986 of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
He has a Masters Degree in Business Administration and went to the Ateneo de Davao University and the Jose Rizal University for his law degree. He passed the bar examinations in 2004.
His first taste of battle after graduating in the PMA was through a test mission for a Scout Ranger course in Talakag town of Bukidnon with the communist rebels where he received military merit medal and commendation.
He spent most of his career in Northern Mindanao, starting off as the command battle staff during his lieutenant days and eventually the provincial director of Bukidnon.
As provincial director of Bukidnon, he was instrumental in the reduction of crime rate and quelling of insurgency activities in the communist rebel-infested province.
e was also assigned as chief directorial staff of the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police. As a police-lawyer, he ensured the enforcement of merit, demerits and initiated speedy process on erring personnel with administrative cases suit and as a result leaving CALABARZON zero backlog on cases.
He served various posts that include that in the Logistics unit of the PNP wherein he spearheaded the honing of Procurement Management Committee to further strengthen the procurement process of the PNP which he had previously crafted.
Gamboa was then assigned as head of the Directorate for Comptrollership where he was credited for reinstating the combat duty pay and combat incentive pay for PNP personnel; specialist pay for the Internal Affairs Service and the Maritime Group.
He also served as chairman of the PNP’s Bids and Awards Committee and for three consecutive terms, served as the PNP’s task force commander of the 2019 for the 2019 elections and oversaw the security preparations and implementation of the plebiscite for the Bangsamoro Organic Law in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Gamboa also helped enhance the internal cleansing mechanism of the PNP, focusing on the Preventive (restraining cops from involvement in criminal activities), Punitive (running after erring cops), and Restorative (reorientation of cops who committed minor offenses) approaches.
Throughout his career, he was given more than 100 medals and various citations for the assignments given to him.
PRACTICAL PIKOY
A native of Baguio City, Cascolan, like Gamboa, is also a member of PMA Class of 1986.
He spent his high school years at the University of the Philippines College Baguio High School and also finished his Public Management master’s degree at the UP Visayas.
His baptism of fire as a fresh PMA graduate was in Parang, Maguindanao which was one of the centers of intense gunbattles between the government and the Moro secessionist groups.
He held various assignments that include chief of police of Taguig City and the number two man of Western Visayas regional police where he earned his first star.
In April 2018, he was assigned as the director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) where he conceptualized assigning policemen near their residence to make them more effective and initiated the eight-hour work for Metro Manila policemen.
He also initiated the implementation of the eight-hour work for policemen, arguing that Metro Manila policemen would do their job well if they are well-rested.
In three weeks of his five-week term as NCRPO chief, the crime volume in Metro Manila went down by more than 20 percent.
As a senior police official, he supervised and oversaw the transfer of the PNP Academy and other training programs for new policemen from the Philippine Public Safety College to the PNP. He is also the proponent of the Camp Crame Development Plan which involves the decentralization of some offices within Camp Crame in Quezon City to the provinces.
As the head of the Directorate for Operations, Cascolan crafted the memorandum circular Double Barrel of the anti-drugs campaign Oplan Tokhang. He also conceptualized the Enhanced Managing Police Operations, an operational strategy against criminality, terrorism and internal security with an emphasis on home defense security concept.
Cascolan is also credited for the creation of the E-WPIS, or the Wanted Person Information System and the e-rogue which gives police officers access to the profile of criminal elements.
Aside from more than 180 medals he received throughout his police career, he was also a recipient of the Country’s Outstanding Police in Service of the Metrobank Foundation in 2015.
STRICT GUILLOR
A son of a World War 2 veteran, Eleazar is a native of Tagkawayan, Quezon and a member of the PMA Hinirang Class of 1987.
It was the stories of the war experiences of his father that encouraged Eleazar to enter the PMA in Baguio City where he graduated cum laude, and Top 4 of the PMA Class 1987.
His first assignment was in communist rebel-infested areas of Southern Tagalog region where he was given various assignments that were mostly on intelligence-gathering and combat operations. His first assignment as a chief of police was in San Pedro in Laguna.
He attended various courses during his junior years and as a middle-ranking officer that includes those related to intelligence, anti-drugs operations, terrorism, anti-kidnapping and those related to money-laundering and tracking down finance fraudsters. He has a Master in Public Administration degree at the Philippine Christian University.
He earned his first star during his stint as director of the Quezon City Police District. He was then assigned as regional director of the CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regional police for almost two months.
It was Eleazar who replaced Cascolan as the director of the NCRPO in May 2018. His stint as Metro Manila top cop further enhanced his popularity which he already enjoyed when he was still the QCPD director.
As NCRPO director, Eleazar initiated various internal cleansing programs against erring cops involved in illegal drugs trade, and conducted surprise inspections to check on the cleanliness of every police stations and if the policemen on-duty are doing their job.
Eleazar was also described as the most social media active senior police official, attributed to his former assignment as head of the Anti-Cybercrime Group, as he was the one who initiated on acting on viral videos involving erring policemen and made sure that all complaints lodged through social media and phone calls through police hotlines were all acted upon.
Amid the perceived dispute between government’s law enforcement agencies on the conduct of war on drugs, Eleazar was credited for organizing the Metro Manila’s Quad-Intel Force composed of the heads of the NCR units of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, National Bureau of Investigation, and the military’s Joint Task Force NCR.
He also made an alliance with Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerald Bantag in reforming the National Bilibid Prisons by setting up a liaison office of the Quad-Intel Force at the Bilibid and sending more than 500 cops to act as temporary prison guards while purging is being done against BuCor employees as he noted that the main drug supplies in Metro Manila came from convicted drug lords at the NBP.
He also initiated the proper data banking on dismissed policemen to prevent them from being reinstated in the police service.
In the first 39 months of the current administration where he was a key force in the NCRPO, crime rate in Metro Manila went down by a record 62 percent compared to the last 39 months of the previous administration
With him at the helm, the NCRPO received first ever Best Regional Police Office award.
Eleazar is a recipient of more than 200 medals that include two from the United Nations and at least six from the military. He is also a recipient of the Metrobank’s Awards for Continuing Excellence in Service, the Presidential Lingkod ng Bayan award in Metro Manila, the Top Cavalier Award and Man of the Year of a media entity. (Aaron Recuenco)
