49 police officers relieved amid investigation of Bamban mayor

The officers will be assigned to the Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit of the Police Regional Office-3.

The Philippines.- Some 49 police officers at Bamban Municipal Police Station have been relieved of their posts amid an investigation into alleged connections between suspended Bamban mayor Alice Guo and an illegal gaming operator.

According to Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson colonel Jean Fajardo, the relieved officers will be assigned to the Regional Personnel Accounting and Retention Unit of the Police Regional Office-3 (PRO-Central Luzon). To fill the posts, personnel from the PRO-3 1st and 2nd Provincial Mobile Force Companies and from Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and Capas will be brought in.

Fajardo said the reassigned officers would undergo a focused reformation and reorientation program known as FORM.

Earlier this week, Guo was suspended as mayor while two municipal officials were placed under preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman following a petition from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The municipal officials suspended are Edwin Ocampo, business permit and licensing officer, and Adenn Sigua, municipal legal officer. They will be suspended without pay during the investigation, which could last up to six months.