POLICE Colonel Hansel Marantan is back in the saddle with his his new post as acting City Director of the Davao City Police Office.

The battle-scarred Marantan set out for Davao City last week, vowing to “to serve and protect, perform his official duties according to what is right and just, and most importantly heeding what (his) conscience dictates: protect the mandate of the duly elected President.”

Marantan’s designation was issued by Police Major General Sidney S. Hernia, Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, in an undated memorandum.

Law enforcement pundits viewed Marantan’s new designation as “a challenge more than a trap, being in the “lion’s den” where he has to face political and public pressures, never fearing the criminal syndicates which he had beaten to their own game.

Certain members of the media fondly call Marantan a “man of steel” owing to the titanium implants replacing certain parts of his body — 52 metal screws, four bone plates and a replaced knee– after several clashes with armed criminals left him severely wounded in past major police operations.

Some analysts even expect Marantan, in the course of his new position, to cause the arrest of fugitive Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.

Marantan’s track record speaks for himself.

During his stint as chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for Metro Manila, Marantan led a team that enforced the search warrants on the home and land property of the then fugitive Rep. Arnulfo Teves following the Negros Oriental massacre.

In 2008, he solved the assassination case of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin when he arrested the instigator, then Abra Gov. Vicente Valera.

Also in 2008, Marantan led his men in neutralizing 30 armed men believed to be members of the “Kuratong Baleleng OGC,” a criminal group notorious for bank robberies and hostage-takings in many parts of the country, who at that time raided an RCBC branch office in Cabuyao, Laguna

On account of his tenacious fight against criminal elements and terrorists, Marantan was twice promoted on merits. He had received from the Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla the “PNP Medal of Valor” for his life-saving acts of bravery on several occasions.

Marantan, now a full-fledged colonel, holds impressive credentials. After his graduation from high school as a seminarian at the Society of the Divine Word in Urdaneta City, Marantan pursued higher education and earned a bachelor’s degree in arts and philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas, a master’s degree in public administration and doctorate in Public Administration with a dissertation focusing on explosives and counter terrorism.

Despite his marvelous feats and well-grounded training, some of his loyal sympathizers say, Marantan is somehow being short-changed, deprived of what is due him and his men as “war-dogs” of the Philippine National Police.

“Of the 230,000- strong PNP, why is it that only Marantan is always given the difficult or suicide tasks, and when controversies arise, the PNP hierarchy is not bold enough to defend their war-dog?,” a sympathizer lamented.

In some incidents, Marantan got sacked, even if the charges were based on mere insinuations. Meantime, the other police officers were busy lapping up every inch of pleasure in their juicy positions.

None of his assignments can be described as a “bed of roses.”

It’s about time Marantan, a decorated officer and a man of action, deserves a little premium in the Officers’ line.

AUTHOR PROFILE

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