Philippines National Police officer-in-charge, Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, announced on Tuesday the Office of the Ombudsman’s suspension order against Northern Mindanao police regional director, Brig. Gen. Rafael Santiago.
Gamboa said Santiago was suspended for six months due to a case in connection with logistics, where a case was filed against him in 2012.
“Yes, he was relieved because he has a suspension order that came out that was dated Oct. 21, 2019. And sayang din (it is a waste) because he was a very good performer but we have to implement the suspension order for six months, even if he is retirable by May of next year, I have no other recourse but to implement it. We will be implementing our new regional director on Thursday,” Gamboa told reporters on the sidelines of his inspection at the Araneta Center Bus Terminal, Cubao, Quezon City.
Santiago is Gamboa’s classmate at the Philippine Military Academy class of 1986.
Gamboa on Monday denied an accusation that ‘bata-bata’ system or favoritism marred the recent massive revamp involving senior police officers.
“I don’t think there is ‘bata-bata’. I don’t know what they are claiming favoritism. All police personnel are my subordinates),” Gamboa said in Filipino during a press briefing at Camp Crame.
He said at least two of his classmates were also affected by the revamp, referring to Maj. Gen. Amador Corpus and Brig. Gen. Edward Carranza.
Corpus was moved from Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to head the Directorate for Human Resource and Doctrine Development while Carranza was assigned to the Logistics Support Service from Region 4 (Calabarzon).
“Rest assured that this bata-bata system no longer exists in the PNP,” Gamboa said.
The National Police Commission (Napolcom) earlier granted Gamboa the authority to implement the revamp, affecting 22 high-ranking officials of the PNP.
Gamboa said the PNP will reevaluate the officials after a three-month probationary period.