Calasiao Police Only Passer in the U.N Initiated PGS-ITP Test

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – The Philippine National Police chief's of this burgeoning town is the sole passer of the eight Class-A first level towns in Pangasinan in the tough Performance Governance System-Integrated Transformation Program (PGS-ITP).

Superintendent Saturnino Ediong

Superintendent Saturnino Ediong said that he was elated by the verdict of the Technical Working Group headed by Senior Superintendents Marlou C. Chan and Antonio Mendoza, Director of Police Provincial Office in Ilocos Norte, Superintendent Reynaldo Tamondong, and San Fernando City Councilor Rodolfo Abat.

PGS-ITG has 10 Key Result Areas (KRA) a chief of police and his staff have to hurdle. They are National Policy and Institutional Development; Police Operations, Facilities Development; Human Resources Development; Administrative and Financial Management; Information and Communication Technology; Demonstration of Excellence through Development of Best Practices; Public Information Advocacy; and Reform Management.

One of the examples of these KRA on how to boost the efficiency of the police is the yearly 3% quota in seizing loose firearms and arresting their owners to lessen the scourge of shooting incidents in every towns, cities, and provinces in the country.

“If you can not do it in the  search warrant, you can confiscate it by other modes like Oplan Sita, checkpoints, Oplan Bakal, police response, and others,” Chan explained.

The police intelligence, according to Chan, plays a role in apprehending and those who possess illegal firearm and how to confiscate them.

Ediong, member of Philippine National Police Academy Class 1999, is also one of the three Superintendents (Lieutenant Colonels in the military) who passed the Police Executive Service Eligibility in Pangasinan given for their rank level.

The others, according to him, are Superitendents Rodolfo Castro, Jr. (PNPA 1999), the current chief of the intelligence division of the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office, and  Armando Muena (PNPA 1998). According to a source who asked anonymity, Muena has been given a conditional passing score by the panel of Chan on the Initiative Stage of the PGS-ITG in Camp Oscar Florendo in San Fernando City

Meanwhile, Ediong said that compared to his predecessor Superintendent Noel Espinoza, he solved two of the three shooting incidents that ensued here from April to September  by arresting and filing a case against the perpetrators while his predecessor solved three out of the seven shooting incidents in his stints from January to April this year.