BY MARTIN A. SADONGDONG
The Philippine National Police formally installed Friday Police Col. Ysmael Salonga Yu as acting spokesperson and acting Public Information Office chief.
A member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Tanglaw” Diwa Class of 1992, Yu serves as the official mouthpiece and publicist of the PNP on matters involving internal security, general peace and order, and accomplishments.
Yu was appointed at a time when the PNP is at the frontline of the crucial fight to address the COVID-19 pandemic and communicating to the public the organization’s on-going campaign against illegal drugs, criminality, and corruption in the remaining two years of President Duterte’s term.
He becomes a Personal Staff Officer of the Chief PNP and holds the concurrent capacity as chief of the Public Information Office, the lead implementor of the PNP Media Relations Policy on the National Headquarters level.
Yu replaced Police Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, who was designated as the new director of the PNP Training Service, after 20 months at the helm.
Before his assignment to the National Headquarters, Yu served as the deputy regional director for operations of the Ilocos Police Regional Office (PRO-1) since October 2019.
He obtained his Master in Public Management degree from the Development Academy of the Philippines in 2017.
He underwent various trainings and programs such as counter-terrorism management course, criminal undercover operation course, police intelligence advance course, finance officer basic course, supervisory development course, and Special Forces operations course, among others.
Yu was erstwhile chief of the Special Service Unit of Headquarters Support Service (HSU-SSU) in Camp Crame, Quezon City and Chief of Finance Service Office 1 and 3 in 2017.
In 2012, he was assigned as company commander of the Bulacan Mobile Force Battalion Company. He was a senior executive assistant at the Office of the Deputy Chief for Operations in 2019.
