MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) – President Aquino on Friday confirmed reports that Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina had offered to resign from his post, but said that he had not yet accepted his resignation.
In an ambush interview after the inauguration of a school buiding in Tarlac, the President said that he could not act on Espina’s resignation offer because he had not yet chosen a replacement for his post.
Aquino acknowledged Espina’s “honorable” offer to leave his post which was meant to distance the police organization from possible leadership problems.
“Director Espina is a very honorable person and he loves the institution and he loves the service. He loves the country. He will turn 56 if I’m not mistaken by July,” Aquino said.
He said Espina’s offer to resign is to prevent the possibility of having two acting director generals within the year.
The President said that the selection process for the new Philippine National Police (PNP) chief is continuing, but he said the new PNP head might not beimmediately installed. He will probably assume office before year-end, he said.
“As of this time,we are conducting various interviews and checks on the various candidates. I will beg everybody’s patience on this matter. It was not projected that we will be changing the chief PNP at this point in 2015. We were thinking that it would be at the end of 2015 where we would have to change the chief PNP,” Aquino said.
The President said they would want to choose who would permanently replace resigned PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima.
Although Purisma had resigned as PNP chief because of the Mamasapano incident, and there is still a pending suspension order against him from the Office of the Ombudsman, it is still in November when Purisima is set to retire from the service. (Eagle News Service, based on a report by Rowena dela Fuente)
