The Philippine National Police (PNP) denied on Tuesday, July 23, of abruptly pulling out the police security escorts assigned to Vice President Sara Duterte, saying proper communication was done to explain why the cops need to be reassigned to other duties.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said that police, through the Police Security Protection Group (PSPG) made coordination with the chief of staff of the Office of the Vice President in connection with the reassignment of policemen who were earlier deployed to secure Duterte.
In pulling out the police escorts of Duterte, Marbil cited major reasons why.
First, he said that the PNP is experiencing a lack of personnel to replace cops on the ground whom he said are doing duties beyond their supposed working hours.
“We have to get all our people because our policemen are already sleepless and are very tired of working beyond their working hours and they can’t work anymore especially after yesterday (referring to SONA duties). Who would replace them? So we are trying to get other policemen that are not needed,” Marbil told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.
Second, Marbil said it is the Presidential Security Group (PSG), composed mainly by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who are in charge of the security of both the President and the Vice President.
And the security arrangement, he said, is that the PNP will just be an augmentation of the PSG duties.
“The security of the Vice President is under the PSG, not under the PSPG anymore. We are just complementing them,” said Marbil.
How many?
Marbil would not say how many policemen were pulled out of security duties for the Vice President but said the figure was not that high.
In a statement issued by the Vice President, she confirmed the order issued by Marbil and said the order was the relief of 75 PSPG personnel from her office.
In a separate order dated July 22, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) got 19 policemen previously assigned to the PSPG, three of them are officers with a rank of major and captain.
Not being singled out
Marbil said they need more policemen to be assigned on the streets in order to further boost the peace and order measures especially in urban areas in the country.
He said the pull out also affected retired generals who are still enjoying protection from the PNP.
“They are saying that she is being singled out. No, we need more policemen on the ground and even retired generals, we pulled out their security because we need more men on the ground,” said Marbil.
He said this was also related to his previous order of deploying at least 80 percent of policemen to the ground.
“If you will see in Camp Crame, we have to download and help our people on the ground because what we want is to limit their working hours to only eight hours. In doing this, we need to download all the excesses,” said Marbil.
On the part of the PSPG, he said more than 300 personnel were already pulled out and were reassigned to normal police duties on the ground.