ILOILO CITY – Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, the new Western Visayas police chief, yesterday vowed to pursue a result-oriented anti-criminality campaign in the region, by maximizing the use of personnel and resources.

Cruz said he has observed that opportunities to make arrests are often hindered by lack of personnel adequately-trained in operations.

To address this, Cruz said, he will require all police personnel, from rookies to senior officers, to undergo refresher training in basic police intervention skills.

Described by his colleagues as a disciplinarian, Cruz, who assumed command of the Police Regional Office 6 from Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, however, said he is liberal and fair when it comes to the morale and welfare of personnel under his command.

“Good deeds and exemplary performance will be quickly acknowledged with appropriate reward, while sloppy work and misbehavior will be swiftly corrected with the corresponding disciplinary and remedial measures provided under PNP Rules and Regulations,” Cruz said.

He, also said that criminal cases involving PNP personnel arising from service-related circumstances will be given appropriate legal assistance.

Cruz, who used to the the PNP spokesman and chief of the Police Community Relations Group, said that his priorities for Region 6 will be radical, but necessary, difficult but doable, and decisive but fair.

Cruz also said that there will be no immediate and drastic changes in current operational thrusts on law enforcement, maintenance of peace and order, as well as internal security operations, which have already been stipulated in the PNP master plan.

What must be done, he added, is to fine-tune the strategy in actual implementation.

On internal security operations, Cruz said he will make a full utilization of the PNP Barangay Information Network as their “eyes and ears” in all threatened areas of Western Visayas.

Director Elpidio De Asis, chief of the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, who represented PNP chief Nicanor Bartolome, conferred on Querol, who is due to assume command of the PNP's elite unit, Special Action Force, today in Metro Manila, the Medalya ng Katapatan sa Paglilingkod, in recognition of his 21-month leadership of the Western Visayas police. * GPB

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