ALL EARS. Chiefs of police all over Pampanga attentively listen to Gov. Pineda declare a province-wide simultaneous repair and rehabilitation of all municipal police stations during a dialog at the Capitol Wednesday.
Photo by Bong Lacson
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – After the district hospitals, comes now the turn of municipal police stations for some make-over by the Capitol.
Pampanga’s chiefs of police led by provincial director Senior Supt. Edgardo Tinio presented before Gov. Lilia Pineda on Tuesday a general state of dilapidation obtaining in all police stations in the province – save for Lubao’s – in a bid to secure assistance from the provincial government for their immediate repair.
Lubao’s two-storey police station built and maintained through a series of Pineda mayorships – starting with the now-governor onto son Dennis and daughter Mylyn – stands out as a model, indeed the exception, among police stations.
One after the other, the police chiefs made a video presentation of leaking roofs, falling ceilings, termite-eaten door jambs, unhinged doors, cracked floors, rusted taps and sinks that generally made the typical municipal police station.
The governor was aghast, the board members present – Monz Laus, Nestor Tolentino, Ric Yabut and Rolly Macalino – cringed at the photographs of non-flushing, stinking toilets policemen shared with their detainees.
“We have been striving so hard to serve our constituents that we may have neglected in some way the needs of our policemen – they who even offer their lives in the service of our people,” Governor Pineda said.
“It is to the credit of our police force that despite this sad state of their workplaces, they have managed to uphold peace and order in our communities,” Pineda added, to a thunderous ovation from the policemen.
Even louder applause greeted the order of the governor for an “immediate, simultaneous repair” of all municipal police stations with the use of Capitol funds.
“I may be breaking procedures here, but it is the least we can do for our hardworking police force,” she said as she tasked the provincial engineer’s office to prepare the plans based on the presentation made by the chiefs of police and undertake actual surveys “to see if there are other problems missed (in the presentation).”
“What we have done to the district hospitals, we shall also do to the police stations. That is to make them not only presentable but responsive to the needs of our constituents,” Pineda said.
The past weeks saw the governor inaugurating newly constructed or rehabilitated buildings at the district hospitals in Magalang, Bacolor and Macabebe.
