COTABATO CITY — Officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) turned over the Sulu Provincial Police Office (PPO) to counterparts in Region IX on Monday.
The Supreme Court removed Sulu last year from the core territory of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as petitioned by its governor then, Hadji Abdusakur M. Tan, Sr.
Mr. Tan was elected vice-governor of Sulu during the May 12 elections.
PRO-BAR’s director, Brig. Gen. Jaysen C. De Guzman, told reporters on Tuesday, that they turned over the Sulu PPO to officials of the Police Regional Office-9 during a symbolic rite on Monday at the Camp Police Senior Superintendent Julasirin Kasim in Barangay Asturias in Jolo, the capital of the island province.
The turnover by PRO-BAR officials of the Sulu PPO to Region IX’s police director, Brigadier General Eleazar P. Matta, was done in the presence of representatives from different sectors in the province.
The ceremony was also witnessed by Sulu Gov. Abdusakur A. Tan II, and ranking officials of the Philippine National Police from Camp Crame in Quezon City, led by the chief of its directorial staff, Major Gen. Neri Vincent D. Ignacio, and the director for plans, Major Gen. Lex Ephraim C. Gurat.
Mr. De Guzman said his counterpart in Region IX, Mr. Matta, was accompanied to Sulu by his deputy for operations, Col. Narciso C. Paragas, and Col. Elmer S. Lim, chief of PRO-9’s regional staff.
“I know these officers as efficient and hardworking officers. They can together efficiently manage, along with the police officers in Sulu, the Sulu Provincial Police Office,” Mr. De Guzman said.
Sulu’s first termer governor, Mr. Tan, said he will continue to support extensively the peacekeeping and law-enforcement activities of the Sulu PPO, now under PRO-9’s control, just the way he supported it while under PRO-BAR. — John Felix M. Unson
