BY AARON RECUENCO
Presidential spokesman Secretary Harry Roque announced Tuesday that Police Lt. Gen. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan will serve as the Office-In-Charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The assumption of Cascolan as PNP-OIC was based on the rule of succession wherein the most senior police official occupies the highest police post.
Being the second man of the PNP as the Deputy Chief for Administration, Cascolan will take over the PNP leadership after the retirement of PNP Chief General Archie Francisco Gamboa on Wednesday.
But who is General Cascolan?
Known by his nickname ‘Pikoy’, Cascolan is also a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1986.
He is a native of Baguio City and a product of the Maryknoll Convent School for his elementary education and the University of the Philippines Baguio High School.
His baptism of fire as a fresh PMA graduate was in Parang, Maguindanao which was one of the battlegrounds of the government and the Moro secessionist groups.
Cascolan spent almost all his junior and middle rank years in Western Visayas where he occupied various posts starting as member of the now defunct Philippine Constabulary in Iloilo in 1988 until up to being the chief of police Balasan Police Station in Iloilo in 1998.
He was assigned to the PNP Headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City in 1999 as head of the Special Research Division of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, a position he held until January 2001.
He then held various assignments that include chief of police of Taguig City, provincial director of then Compostela Valley Province, and the number two man of Western Visayas regional police wherein he earned his first star.
He was named PNP Director for Operations and later held the position as Regional Director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) starting in April 2018 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. (Aaron Recuenco)
