PNP chief Verzosa to retire early

Director General Jesus Verzosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), will bow out of police service, three months ahead of his mandatory retirement date. But Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Jr., PNP spokesman, quickly stressed that Verzosa's early retirement on September 14 has nothing to do with the August 23 hostage-taking incident in Manila. Cruz explained it was decided by the PNP chief himself a month or two ago. Verzosa is scheduled to retire on December 25, Christmas Day, and also the day he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56. Cruz said Verzosa's early retirement is a "consensus of Class 76, to give way to younger officers to continue on with the PNP Integrated Transformation Program." Cruz is referring to Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Magilas Class 1976, of which Verzosa is a member. The early retirement consensus issue cropped up last month when another member of the class Deputy Director General Jefferson Soriano retired last month. Soriano was supposed to retire on November 11 this year. In recent interviews, Verzosa himself confirmed his early retirement plan, saying all of the remaining PMA Class 1976 members, in both the police and military, do not want to retire on their respective birthdays. “We have been talking about it and all of us do not want to retire during our birthdays," said Verzosa in one of the interviews last month. Aside from Verzosa and Soriano, the remaining members of the PMA Class 1976 in the PNP are Police Director Abner Cabalquino, the chief of the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management and Police Director Luizo Ticman, the chief of the Directorate for Logistics. Sources said both Cabalquinto, who is scheduled to retire on October 9, and Ticman, on October 10, will retire next week. In the military, the remaining Class 1976 members are Lieutenant General Ben Dolorfino, commander of the Western Mindanao Command and Vice Admiral Leonardo Calderon, PMA superintendent. – VVP, GMANews.TV