RD's Message

MESSAGE

PCSUPT CIPRIANO E. QUEROL, JR

REGIONAL DIRECTOR

(Note: This is the transcript of the message of Police Regional Office 6 director, Chief Superintendent Cipriano E. Querol, Jr., on the occasion of the 20th PNP Foundation Day Anniversary on January 31, 2011.)

"The higher you have to reach, the deeper you have to dig – moving to the next level comes from this process." I cannot remember who has said this line but certainly I cannot forget the profundity of its message – nothing comes without a cost.

Higher…Deeper…Next Level. These words will serve as the key terms of my message today. And I pick these benchmarks to elucidate my vision of Police Regional Office 6 for this year. What do we want of PRO6 to accomplish? Where do we expect PRO6 to go? Well, as I said, PRO6 will be higher, deeper and moving to the next level this year.

Today, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Philippine National Police. This is an occasion not so much to review what we have accomplished but to set new goals – bigger and more challenging.

The last year has brought us many, many feats - big and small – both in the aspect of operations and administration. Looking back, I could say, we have succeeded.

I was the fifth Regional Director, in a matter of one year, who assumed the position last year. But despite the rapid turn-over in leadership, PRO6 had been unrelenting in giving the people a beautiful spectrum of accomplishments.

I need not enumerate the specifics; you are all aware that we have done remarkable feats in protecting the people and ensuring that peace and order would reign in all corners of the region. The overwhelming success of the national and local elections in May and the barangay and SK elections in October was a solid proof of our dedication to duty and outstanding competence in our functions.  Indeed, our strict implementation of gun ban, intensified checkpoints/chokepoints operations, enhanced patrolling, and stronger partnerships with various sectors and stakeholders collectively served for the best interest of the people.

Western Visayas has without it shares of problems though. One of our headaches last year was the string of robbery incidents with Bukas/Basag Kotse and True Brown Style (TBS) 13 Gangs coming into the highlights. This issue was resolved with the outpouring of support of the community that led to the neutralization of notorious Chiva gang who was tagged for the series of robbery incidents in Iloilo and other provinces. The notoriety of TBS 13 gang also died a natural death when some of its leaders and members were arrested.

Our fight against illegal drugs was also strong and delivered good results. The arrest of drug pusher in Miag-ao with his seven-million worth of cocaine was a milestone. But again, our partner, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and our local police unit could not have pinned down the suspect without the information coming from the field, from people in the community who sympathize and keep alliances with us.

Our campaign on anti-illegal gambling had also been fruitful. We did strictly implement the one-strike policy which put our field commanders on their toes in ensuring that their respective area of responsibility is clear of any and all forms of illegal gambling activity.

And in the last quarter last year, when yours truly took the helm of leadership, we launched the innovative mechanism to strengthen and improve the peace and order situation here by campaigning for stronger community involvement in policing and peacekeeping.

With this conviction, we took the cudgel and started the operationalization of Barangay Peacekeeping Operations by lobbying to various local governments for their support in the organization of Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams in all barangays.

We got positive and promising feedback on this undertaking. And with the growing number of barangays that welcomed the program, we become more confident that we are getting closer to our goal of making Western Visayas more peaceful and orderly, and PRO6, more credible, reliable and competent.

These accomplishments and many others were legacies of last year. Though such feats were good enough, we cannot just be complacent. We have to break records and add more. Thus, I envision PRO6 to be in the next level this year. It means we have to set higher goals; and with that we have to strengthen our foundation…we have to dig deeper. As I said nothing comes without a cost.

This year, we have to deliver better results and higher statistics in our operational accomplishments.

We have to prioritize our war against illegal drugs. We have already gained control over Brgys. Malipayon, Esperanza and Bakhaw in Iloilo City. And now we are watching closely other barangays which are considered vulnerable to become the next drug capitals. Thus, we are pushing our men and we are increasing the numbers of our operatives to ensure that we get results and we achieve our goals. We will stop illegal drugs!

Also, We will not stop, instead we will be more vigilant against illegal gambling operators. And we will put an end to the robbery incidents. How can we do this? We are no super man. We are no super body. But we can accomplish this goal by winning the community. And this is why we will be doubling our efforts in campaigning for the organization and operationalization of BPATs in all barangays. Recently, we have trained 61 trainers. With these BPAT trainers, we are assured that there will be an exponential growth in BPAT membership and organization.

And again, with BPATs everywhere, we are aiming higher statistics in our other campaigns, especially against wanted persons, cattle-rustling, illegal fishing, and other criminalities.

Don’t get me wrong though. While we are banking on our BPAT, we will also continuously seek improvement in our ranks. For this purpose, we will be re-training all our police stations. We will re-introduce our police personnel to the basics, the fundaments of police service. This thrust is enshrined in the Eight Foundation Initiatives of the Chief, PNP, Police Director General Raul Bacalzo, in the hope of making all police personnel more competent in performing their basic functions.

And in making our men more competent, we will also encourage everyone to assimilate the principle of mentoring leadership. "We shall encourage teaching interaction to ensure that experiences and learnings are passed on up and down the ranks…Like a true PNP family, we will teach each other, we will learn from each other." Let us share freely our bright ideas to improve outputs and performances. And with that I enjoin everyone to keep an open mind to these ideas. We want to improve and we can do so if we are willing to learn in the first place.

Ladies and gentlemen, mentoring leadership is founded on humility. As much as we admit that we can do nothing more without the support of the community, so too that we cannot improve ourselves without being humble in learning from one another – regardless of ranks, positions and personal circumstances.

Learning and improving ourselves are of paramount importance in our goal because, to borrow the words of the Chief, PNP, "Marami tayong responsibilidad, mataas ang inaasahan ng mamamayan sa atin. Habang Patuloy tayong nagbabago, patuloy din tayong magsisilbi, patuloy nating pananatiliin ang kaayusan at kapayapaan".

Don’t forget – we will be re-training on the basics and observing the principle of mentoring leadership! Why we have to do this? It is because we have set our goals higher…and we are moving to the next level in our performance. Such necessitates that we have to be strongly and deeply grounded.

Thus, our keywords this year are higher, deeper and next level. Higher goals are achievable, provided we anchor our capabilities to a deeper understanding of our roles and the roles of other sectors and stakeholders. By so doing, we are ready to the next level of performances.

Today, I should not fail to congratulate our awardees - individual and g

To all of you, officers, PNCOs and NUP, congratulations for the job well done and together let us all go higher, deeper for the next level of PRO6.

Happy Anniversary!

Mabuhay tayong lahat!