I’m talking about how the crowd at the Camp Crame basketball gym would shout in unison each time he makes his shot from beyond the three-point line. I’m referring to a dear friend, former PNP chief, General Camilo Pancratius Pascua Cascolan, simply ‘Sir Pikoy’ to me and many of his friends who played solid good basketball before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country and the rest of the world.

On Friday, I was having a simple lunch with retired Brigadier Gen. Noel Baraceros and Center for Police Strategy Management director, Brig. Gen. Vic Arevalo at the CPSM office when I asked Barry how his mistah ‘Pikoy’ is doing. He told me that last November 9, or a day before Gen. Cascolan’s 59th birthday, he and Arevalo visited the bed-ridden ‘Pikoy’ in his residence.

Then we talked all the good things we remember about the General and really hoped and prayed that someday, he will survive. Past 9 in the evening, Baraceros informed me ‘we have lost a brother and friend.’

A dear good friend gone too soon is really a tragedy and me and my family join Mrs. Amelia Cascolan and son Jiro in grieving over his loss. I have been a good friend of ‘Pikoy’ since his much younger days and used to visit him in his Camp Crame quarters where we used to enjoy some beer and share laughter during the early 2000. He used to joke that he was the only Lieutenant Colonel occupying a big quarters usually assigned for a General then.

Our friendship was further forged by our passion for basketball. I think it was sometime in 2016 when he joined the PNP Executive Baskeball Team of which I am a member and we played memorable games with the ‘Katipuneros,’ a team of former Ateneo cagers reinforced by retired PBA superstars.

Our team composed of now retired PMA Generals Nick Bartolome, Bay Layon, Roque Ramirez, Nes Quinsay, Sonny Philipps, Noel Vargas, Edmund Gonzales, Bong Dickson, Clift Empiso, Mon Rafael and Bert Solomon, backed-up by young ‘Lakan Colonels’ really fought hard with those ‘Katipuneros’ and yes, sometimes, we also beat them.

Prior to his death, ‘Pikoy,’ a member of the famous ‘PMA ‘Sinagtala’ Class of 1986 served as an Undersecretary of the Department of Health, appointed to the position by PBBM in February 2021. He also served as chief of the PNP from September 2 to November 10, 2023 and actually was the 4th PMA Class 1986 member to be appointed as the country’s top cop by PRRD during his 6-year presidency.

However, his was also the shortest as he served for only two months and eight days—all of them during the infamous pandemic days. I still remember that day when he saw me from a distance at Camp Crame but we were unable to talk. Hours later, Lieutenant Colonel Ayn Natuel of the Office of the PNP Chief called me up and told me Gen. Cascolan was asking if I were ok.

On the same night, Gen. Cascolan called me up to make sure if I were still in the pink of health. When I assured him I’m ok, he told me to join him in some pick-up games, actually just a form of basketball exercises to help us stay fit during those times.

Unknown to many, Gen. Cascolan is the architect of the PNP Oplan: Double Barrel’ which became the PNP’s flagship program in the ‘war against drugs’ during the Duterte presidency.

Before he became the PNP chief, Cascolan commanded a number of key PNP positions including the PNP Directorate for Operations, the National Capital Region Police Office and the PNP Civil Security Group before becoming the PNP The Chief Directorial Staff, then as PNP Deputy Chief for Operations and later as PNP Deputy Chief for Administration.

Former President Duterte appointed him as the 24th PNP chief when Cascolan’s classmate, Gen. Gamboa retired from the police force. Born on November 10, 1964 in Baguio City, ‘Pikoy’ did not get an extended term from PRRD.

After graduating from the PMA in Fort del Pilar in Baguio City in 1986, he joined the now defunct Philippine Constabulary and became a bemedaled officer who helped fought insurgents and other lawless elements in Mindanao and Visayas regions.

During his junior years, he served as chief of police in three municipalities in Iloilo and even became a chief of the Taguig City Police Station in the late 2000. He went on to become a director of the Compostela Valley Police Provincial Office, now known as Davao de Oro, in 2012; became a Deputy Regional Director for Operations of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Police Regional Office in 2015; a Deputy Regional Director for Administration of the Police Regional Office 6 in Western Visayas in 2016; and a Metro Manila police chief in 2018.

The late national police chief received more than 180 medals for bravery, efficiency and excellency throughout his military and police career. He is also one of the Country’s Outstanding Police Officers in Service chosen by the Metrobank Foundation in 2015. In 2019, he also received the Award for Continuing Excellence and Service (ACES) from Metrobank.

Gen. Cascolan is also known for his intelligence, operations and administrative savvy, having worked with units like the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime and the PNP Aviation Security Group.

He first saw action as a young Constabulary Special Action Force officer based in Parang, Maguindanao in 1987 and helped the government suppress threats posed by the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

He was an officer of the PCTC then under Gen. Leandro Mendoza when the infamous EDSA 2 toppled the Erap Estrada presidency and catapulted PGMA into power. Mendoza, who passed away in October 2013, would later became the 1st PNP chief to be appointed by PGMA. Under Mendoza, ‘Pikoy’ was assigned at the PNP-CIDG.

Before the 2016 elections, ‘’Pikoy’ would tell me the ‘hard life’ of being a DRDA at the Western Visayas police force during the days P-noy administration each time we meet at Camp Crame.

When his mistah, now Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa was designated as PNP chief by PRRD in July 2016, Cascolan was named as PNP Director for Operations by the latter. As head of the PNP-DO, he was credited as one of the co-authors of Operation Double Barrel which was used during the ‘war on drugs’ ordered by PRRD. He also introduced the concept on Enhanced Managing Police Operations to address the country’s internal and external threats. In fact, he used to ‘lecture’ me on those concepts’ each time we had coffee in his office then,.

In April 2018, Gen. Cascolan was designated as chief of the National Capital Region Police Office by dela Rosa’s successor, another PMA Class 1986 classmate, Gen. Oscar Albayalde. However, the two started having a difference when Cascolan insisted on an ‘8-hour workday for members of the Metro Manila police force and the need for NCRPO men to be assigned near their homes.

I still remember that Gen. Albayalde wanted a 12-hour workday for his men which runs counter to what Cascolan wants. After only six weeks, ‘Pikoy’ was relieved as NCRPO chief by Albayalde who also happened to be the one he replaced at the Metro Manila police force.

‘Pikoy’ was greatly devastated by his relief which he told me was an ‘injustice’ to him. When he was assigned to the PNP-CSG, he told me that it was then already retired Gen. dela Rosa who would always show up in his office to ‘fix’ his broken ties with Albayalde and company.

I still remember that when Gen. Albayalde’s 83-year old mother Consolacion passed away in July 2018, I asked ‘Pikoy’ if he had visited the wake of his mistah’s mom.

When he said no, I gave him a brotherly advise: “Pare, please pay him a visit. He needs it badly.”

‘Pikoy’ looked at me in my eyes and nodded. Before Gen. Albayalde’s mom was laid to his final resting place, I learned that Gen. Cascolan motored to that memorial chapel in San Fernando City in Pampanga very early in the morning to pay his last respects to the Albayalde matriarch and talk with his mistah and family. The rest is history.

Farewell my friend. Beat all those 3-point shooters in heaven. Make sure that these words will be repeated again and again. Cascolan, 3-Points…