About 24 of 31 police chiefs in Negros Occidental are facing relief from their posts, as a sweeping reshuffling takes effect March 1, Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, provincial police director, said yesterday.

Guisihan said they constitute 80 percent of all the police chiefs in Negros Occidental.

The evaluation of the performance of the 31 police chiefs is ongoing, he added.

Expressing dismay over the performance of some police chiefs in the campaign against illegal gambling, Guisihan said he wants to give the young and junior police officers a chance to prove their worth.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia was asked yesterday by the Peace and Order Council of Bacolod City to make  Senior Supt. Ricardo De la Paz the permanent police director of Bacolod City.

Pat Martir, a member of the POC, yesterday said the council will come up with a resolution in their next meeting to make a formal request, adding that they are satisfied with the performance of De La Paz.

Leonardia, meanwhile, said this was one of the issues he took up with Philippine National Police chief Gen. Raul Bacalzo during the latter’s visit to Bacolod City yesterday.

Despite its ongoing modernization, the Philippine National Police still lacks 55,000 policemen to secure about 90 million Filipinos, PNP chief, Director General Raul Bacalzo, said yesterday.

On top of that, the 132,000-strong police force lacks firearms needed for law enforcement operations, he added.

Bacalzo, who spoke at the Joint Provincial and City Peace and Order Council meeting at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol, however, said he was happy that local government executives  in Western Visayas, particularly Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, are helping their police forces, with logistical requirements.