RELIEVED. Police Regional Office-Central Luzon Director Brig. Gen. Jose Hidalgo Jr., (holding flag) presides over the turnover ceremony at Bamban Municipal Police Station in Tarlac province on Monday (June 3, 2024). A total of 49 officers of the town were relieved pending investigation into the alleged illegal operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators. (Photo courtesy of PNP Public Information Office)
MANILA – A total of 49 police officers assigned to the Bamban Municipal Police Station in Tarlac province have been relieved from their posts amid the investigation into illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in the town.
In a press briefing in Camp Crame, Quezon City Tuesday, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the affected police officers will be assigned to the Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit of the Police Regional Office-3 (PRO-Central Luzon).
Taking over the 49 are officers from the PRO-3 1st and 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Companies and nearby Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and Capas.
"Sasa-ilalim sila doon sa tinatawag nating (They will undergo what we call) focused reformation and reorientation for police officers, 'yung tinatawag nating FORM diyan (or what we call the FORM),” Fajardo said.
The FORM would be held at the PNP Training Service School for Values and Leadership in Subic, Zambales.
Fajardo said the town's chief of police was earlier relieved following the March 13 raid by law enforcers on the POGO establishment Zun Yuan Technology Inc.
“If you may recall, this is not the first time that we relieved police officers and many of them are commanders. It's not only our ordinary police officers who are involved in illegal activities, neglect of duty or serious irregularity in the performance of duty because we are also holding their immediate supervisors accountable, which include chiefs of police," Fajardo said.
The Office of the Ombudsman had also imposed a six-month preventive suspension on Guo and two other municipal officials in connection with the graft charges filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The DILG alleged that Guo allowed POGOs to operate in the municipality.
The Ombudsman found sufficient grounds to suspend Guo, Edwin Ocampo, and Adenn Sigua “considering that there is strong evidence showing their guilt" on the charges of grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and gross neglect of duty.
Ocampo is with the Municipal Business Permits and Licensing Office while Sigua is a municipal legal officer. (PNA)
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