Crame flip-flops on Hitosis relief order

By Nitz Arancon

CAMP Crame was supposed to replace northern Mindanao police director Chief Supt. Gil Hitosis yesterday but changed its mind at the eleventh hour.

Hitosis told radio station DxCO at around 6:30 am that he was relieved, and then he confirmed that his replacement was going to be Chief Supt. Catalino Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was supposed assume as the new police chief for Region 10 during a “mass turnover” of police commands scheduled at Camp Crame yesterday morning.

But for still unclear reason, the turnover did not push through as scheduled.

Hitosis told local radio that National Police Director General Alan Purisima  signed his relief order and the appointment papers of Rodriguez on Saturday or a day before the start of the election period.

“This is part of a major revamp in the PNP effected by Camp Crame. I have just been promoted, actually,” he said in the morning.

Hitosis was supposed to assume as Camp Crame’s deputy director for research and development, a position normally reserved for “two-star generals.”

But at around 5:30 pm, Hitosis told The Gold Star Daily that he is still the director of the National Police in northern Mindanao.

He did not explain why Camp Crame officials had a change of mind but he revealed that National Police Director Purisima and other key Camp Crame officials were having a conference with Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

Rodriguez, who would have taken over as chief of the regional police office yesterday, is not new to Camp Alagar. When the region’s police director was Chief Supt. Jufel Adriatico, Rodriguez served as Camp Alagar’s deputy director for administration. He has also served as chief for intelligence of the Misamis Oriental police.

Hitosis said yesterday’s aborted change in the region’s police leadership would not have been a violation of a Commission on Elections’ rule on new assignments during the election period that officially started on Sunday.