Ortiz to replace Miro as Dagupan's police chief

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – This city will have another chief of police (COP) in another reshuffle conducted by the regional police office in San Fernando City, La Union.

A source closed to Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Gregorio Perez IV quoted the latter to say that outgoing Officer-In-Charge's COP of this city Superintendent Neil Miro will replace Urdaneta City’s OIC chief of police Superintendent Jackie Candelario while Miro will be succeeded by Supt. Frank Ortiz.

NEW CHIEF. New Dagupan City's Chief of Police Supt. Frank Ortiz (extreme left)
poses with Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez.Ortiz is a member of the Philippine
National Police Academy’s Class of 2003. He hailed from Barangay
Apugan-Loakan, Baguio City.

According to Ortiz he is not certain when will be the date of his turn-over with Miro. He said he was just reassigned from the Intelligence Group at Camp Crame in Quezon City  to the police regional office in San Fernando City and the police provincial office (PPO) in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

“I’m in a floating position at the PPO  now and did not yet know when I will be assigned in Dagupan City,” Ortiz, 40, told Northern Watch. 
But according to a source the turn-over will be on April 10. The early change of command was due to a car accident that figured Supt. Candelario who suffered, according to a press release from the PPO, a dislocated right hip when his Toyota Vios bumped a mango tree in Barangay Maticmatic in Sta. Barbara.The accident ensued at 4:36 in the morning of April 7.
Ortiz is a member of the Philippine National Police Academy’s Class of 2003. He hailed from Barangay Apugan-Loakan, Baguio City.

Before his assignment in Camp Crame he was assigned in a regional intelligence unit in Cebu City.

Source who asked not to be identified said that Ortiz was a protege of Chief Superintendent  Charlo Collado, the new OIC Police Regional Director of Region 1, in an Intelligence Group in Camp Crame.

“He was part of a few selected men brought by Collado when he replaced Chief Superintendent Gregorio Pimentel who was plucked to the Directorial for Intelligence at Camp Crame in a two-star position there”.

Miro, a ward of Pimentel and a member of PNPA Class 1997, became a COP here for more than eight months after he replaced Supt. Christopher Abrahano in August last year . 
Abrahano was one of the longest serving chiefs of police in the history of this city since the inception of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Act of 1990 where the Philippine Constabulary was replaced by the Philippine National Police in January 29, 1991.

Abrahano became COP here in 2012 under the administration of then Mayor Benjie S. Lim and was retained by Mayor Belen Fernandez when she defeated Lim in the 2013 election.

He was the first PNPA alumnus who became COP here where most of his predecessors were graduates of the Philippine Military Academy.

“The longest serving chief of Dagupan was Boysie Rosales as he served the city twice under Mayor (Al) Fernandez while Abrahano served Dagupan for four years,” the source said.

The prestigious position of the top cop here has been being glamorized by the media as most of the COP assigned here became not only Chief Superintendent (one star general in the military) but became Chief of the PNP like former Director General Hermogenes Ebdane.

Former chiefs who became generals, who were all alumni of the PMA were  Roberto “Boysie” Rosales , Wendy Rosario, Manuel Barcena, Edgar Basbas to  name a few.