S/S BLANCO NAMED OIC

CAMP CAPT. VALENTIN S. JUAN, Laoag City, Jan. 2—Former Laoag City police chief Senior Superintendent Sterling Raymund Blanco was designated officer-in-charge of the Ilocos Norte police provincial office here.

A native of Laoag City, Colonel Blanco replaced S/S Antonio Mendoza Jr., who voluntarily resigned as PD effective Dec. 26, 2014 and went abroad to assume his new post as police attaché in the Philippine Embassy in California, USA.
Blanco, a Philippine Military Academy graduate, will serve as OIC pending the appointment of a police provincial director who will render a tour of duty for at least two years.

Prior to his reassignment in Ilocos Norte, he served for seven months as OIC PD in Pangasinan and later occupied a key department position at the PNP regional office in La Union.

However, his name is expected to be included in the shortlist of three nominees for the PD post. The police top brass in Camp Crame, Quezon City through the PNP regional office in La Union will submit the shortlist to Gov. Imee Marcos for her to pick her favorite choice.

Many Ilocanos here expressed preference for Blanco noting that he would be an effective PD being a city mate who knows well the terrain of the province as well as the language and culture of fellow Ilocanos.

At press time, it was learned that Blanco had conducted at the provincial headquarters in this camp his first command conference with the INPPO senior and junior officers as well as the police chiefs of the different PNP stations from the cities of Laoag and Batac and 21 municipalities.

In his initial interview with the media about anti-crime campaign, he vowed to focus on daily police operations such as the conduct of checkpoints, application of arrest warrants against wanted persons as well as the deployment of more cops on populated areas and training on disaster preparedness. (tsg w/ jm-rs, dd-ga report)