THE Philippine National Police (PNP) is paying tribute to its top logistician, Major General Angelito A. Casimiro, who will be retiring this week after more than 37 years of sterling service in the military and police service while ensuring quality and adequate logistical supplies for the force amid the pandemic.

A member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ‘Maringal’ Class of 1988 who will mark his 56th birthday on Saturday, Casimiro is a known intelligence and operations officer who rose to head the PNP Directorate for Logistics since July 12, 2020, the period when the PNP was still adjusting its effort to help prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.

For more than 14 months, he headed the police force in ensuring that only quality equipment will be procured by the PNP leadership as part of their continuing effort to further improve the ‘move, shoot, communicate and investigate’ capabilities of the force thru graft-free bidding process.

As a testament to his dedication to his job, he served as PNP-DL under four PNP chiefs: Generals Archie Francisco F. Gamboa, Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan, Debold M. Sinas and Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar.

As PNP-DL director, Casimiro ensured the promotion of full transparency in the PNP procurement process and in the implementation of procurement contracts under the new normal brought about by the pandemic..

To ensure graft-free bidding process, the official made sure that the PNP-DL will be fully following the guidelines and procedures the Inspection and Acceptance of all goods delivered to the police force so that the PNP can really ensure that taxpayers’ money won’t be wasted.

Gen. Eleazar has assured the public to expect more ‘top-of-the-line’ equipment to boost the ‘move, shoot, communicate and investigate’ capabilities of the police force under the new normal where they can help address the threats of COVID-19 while fighting criminality, terrorism and corruption at the same time.

He also assured the citizenry they also have an honest-to-goodness transparent procurement program wherein the best they their money can buy are prioritized while millions of pesos saved as a result of quality equipment offered to them by the lowest bidders are procured by the PNP-DL under Casimiro.

It was under Maj. Gen. Casimiro that the PNP procured its Body-Worn Cameras or BWCs as part of its effort to promote transparency and at the same time protect their officers from harassment charges each time they serve a warrant of arrest or a search warrant for illegal possession of drugs, firearms and explosives.

The PNP has also set its sights on acquiring more aircraft to better fight crime and terrorism. Program for acquisition by the PNP this year were 12 aircraft including two fixed-wing planes. Early this year, the PNP formally accepted the delivery of three brand new H-125 Airbus single engine helicopters.

The PNP now has seven H-125 Airbus choppers, two R-22 Robinson choppers and a fixed-wing trainer plane in its fleet.

Maj. Gen. Casimiro said that under their 2019 Capability Enhancement Program, they have ordered three single-engine turbine helicopters worth P722.4 million from the Airbus Helicopters Southeast Asia PTE Ltd.

He added that under the PNP Capability Enhancement Program 2020-05, they also got more high-speed tactical watercraft for use of their maritime forces.

The official said that since the start of the pandemic in March last year, they have made sure that they will have a full stock of Personnel Protective Equipment including alcohol, face masks, face shields, gloves, thermal scan that can be issued to their men in the field.

Already, the PNP this year had already procured 1.5 million rounds of 5.56 SS109 linked ammunition and one million rounds of 7.62mm SS109 ammunition for their automatic weapons issued to the PNP Special Action Force and the different Regional and Provincial Mobile Battalions.

Casimiro said they procured 2,693 units of BWC system for P288,888,888, getting a total savings of P45,111,006.19 which will be used by the PNP in procuring other equipment.

Thru their Congressional Initiative Allocation fund in 2018, the official said they managed to procure One Lot of Rapid Deployment CCTV System and one lot of CCTV System.

Under the PNP CEP 2021, police will be getting 411 more 4X2 Toyota patrol vehicles, 13 Hino shuttle bus, 90 4X4 personnel carriers, 16 brand-new marked vans, 10 brand-new utility trucks and 41 ambulances/advance life support ambulances, all worth P818,175766.00.Casimiro said they have a balance of P2,964.962 in their CEP 2021 which will be used in making additional purchases.

Also set to be procured by the PNP this year are 5,000 units of 9mm striker-fired pistols, 10,000 units of 5.56mm Basic Assault Rifles, 170 VHF Low Band Hand-held Radios, 1,628 units of digital hand-held radios, 5,298 units of Undershirt Vest Level III-A and 182 units of monocular Night Vision equipment.

In 2019, Casimiro was appointed as PNP Logistics Support Service director and ensured that the LSS will be fully complying with its mandates especially when it comes to following Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

In October 2019, the native of Nueva Fiscaya became the Police Regional Office 2 director in Cagayan Valley. It was under him that the Cagayan Valley police managed to greatly improve 36 brand-new motorcycles, two E-trikes and a utility truck to further improve the capability of the local police to patrol the streets and conduct search, rescue and relief operations.

Casimiro is married to the former Jessia Maria Paz Sale and is blessed with three children, Martha Angela, Julian Angelo and Anne Estrella.