Acorda to Retire on Dec. 3 or BBM extends his Term?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Will each of the following names below - some of the remaining members of the elite Philippine Military Academy - become the successor of PNP Chief Benjie Acorda on December 3?

Or will President Marcos appoint a graduate of the Philippines National Police Academy as the heir apparent of Acorda thus ending the monopoly and influence of the PMYers in the helm of the PNP!

The last PMYers that were commissioned in the PNP were those of PMA Class of 1992 . They were either one, two or three - star's generals now and will be retiring next year or four years from now.

I know this because I met many of them when I worked at the information office of the PMA in the late 1980s.

Excerpt of a news report:

"Chief for Administration, Lieutenant Gen. Rhodel O. Sermonia; PNP Deputy Chief for Operations, Lt. Gen. Michael John F. Dubria; and PNP Chief Directorial Staff, Major Gen. Emmanuel B. Peralta.

Sermonia is a product of PMA “Makatao” Class of 1989. He is the last member of PMA Class 1989 in the PNP but will be retiring from the police force on January 26, 2024.

Dubria and Peralta are both classmates of Acorda from PMA Class 1991. Dubria will retire on December 20, 2024, while Peralta will mark his 56th birthday on August 24 next year.

Another member of PMA Class 1991, PNP Director for Comptrollership, Brigadier Gen. Rommel Francisco D. Marbil is also being mentioned as a candidate for the next top cop.

Born on February 7, 1969, the 54-year-old Marbil used to be the head of the PNP Highway Patrol Group who rose to become a Police Regional Office 8 director in Eastern Visaya".

Those alumni of Class 1992 of the PMA that could bag the top post of the former Philippines Constabulary:

Major General Romeo Caramat - my classmate at the College of Law in Pangasinan - , Major Gen. Junel Estomo, Brig. Gen. Matthew Baccay and Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee.

Lee, by the way is an Ilocano - like Acorda - and hailed from the City of San Fernando in La Union.

Lee's wife Bong Lee came from Batac, Ilocos Norte. Pres. Marcos and Acorda - from Laoag City - are from the same province of Ilocoslovakia - the proud bailwick of the The Apo Ferdie - the father of BBM.

One of their mistah or classmates is National Capital Region Police Office Chief Jose Melecio Nartates (PMA. '92) who will be retiring on March 2027 (He was born in Santa, Ilocos Sur in March 1971). My Bubwit told me that Nartates and Pimentel are two of the few candidates being groomed to be the big boss of the PNP.

BUT WHAT THESE I GOT NOW FROM THREE SENIOR PNP BRASS: NO HEIR APPARENT YET FOR ACORDA NEXT WEEK.

"Wala pa! Tahimik lahat ayaw malasin!"

"Wala pa Mortz, baka ma extend!"

"Good evening Sir Mortz, wala pa maingay ngayon. Wala pa matunog lahat tahimik".

Those were their messages on my Messenger, sanamagan, to answer my poser.

They were different before Acorda was handpicked by President Marcos as the next PNP Chief despite the acrimony that Estomo (who was then "chummy - chummy" with Local Government Sec. Benjamin Abalos, Jr.) would replace last August 24, 2023 the beleaguered PNP Chief Director General Rodolfo Azurim, Jr.

I wrote on my October 13, 2022 - eleven months before Acorda became PNP Chief - political blog that on the birthday bash of Police Lt. Gen. Mariel Magaway (PMA' 86) in the posh Valle Verde in Pasig City, I met some Colonels and senior officers of the Directorate for Intelligence (D.I) led by their then chief Major Gen. Acorda . When my sister-in-law Liza Magaway – the Missus of Magaway (former Chief of D.I) – introduced him to me, she quipped to me and Acorda that the latter would be the next PNP to replace Azurin.

Upon hearing it, the following morning I wrote on my blog: Acorda will be next PNP Chief. That was a prescience or a scoop or whatever compare to the predictions of some opinion writers in the country because after 11 months the PMYer from Laoag City - and the younger brother of my friend's Revenue District Office Chief Trina Acorda Villamil of the Bureau of Internal Revenue - became the top whip of the national police force.