PNP spokesmen are all merry and bright
MY congratulations to Colonel Roderick Alba who is set to earn his star-rank after he was designated by PNP chief, General Gilor Eleazar as his new spokesperson and chief of the PNP Public Information Office.
Alba on record became the 2nd product of the PNP Academy –he is a member of PNPA ‘Tagapagpatupad’ Class of 1992 –to become a PNP-PIO chief and spokesperson of the 222,000-strong national police force. The 1st is now retired Brig. Gen. Brandi Usana of PNPA Class 1988 who held the job during the term of former PNP chief, Gen. Debold Sinas.
The proud Ilonggo actually became the 35th PNP spokesmen on record since 1991, the first being the late Gen. Rey Wycoco of Philippine Military Academy Class 1968. Wycoco became a PNP Deputy Chief for Administration and later director of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Alba replaced Brig. Gen. Ronnie Olay of PMA Class 1990 who is now the PNP Director for Logistics, a position which will earn him his 2nd star or the rank of Police Major General. As the 35th PNP spokesperson, Alba will serve as the official mouthpiece and publicist of the PNP.
As Gen. Eleazar had mentioned, Alba will be in his office to sustain the PNP public information programs with utmost transparency and public accountability by ensuring public right to information; and to promote public information consciousness among PNP units and personnel.
Retiring on August 31, 2026, Alba used to be the Deputy Director for Administration of the PNP Information Technology Management Service. He also previously commanded the Negros Occidental and Iloilo Police Provincial Offices. He also served well under now retired Gen. Cesar Binag, a former PNP Deputy Chief for Administration.
Binag, a classmate of Gen. Eleazar from PMA Class 1987 only had good words for Alba when we spoke over phone this week. It turned out that Alba served as Binag’s Regional Operations and Plans Division chief when he was still the Police Regional Office 6 director in Western Visayas.
My latest count is that the PNP already had 34 spokespersons and chiefs of PNP-PIO since 1991. The 34th is soon-to-be-Major Gen. Olay while the 35th is Col. Alba. Of the previous 34 PNP spokespersons, six occupied the position twice starting from now retired Generals Cris Maralit, Dindo Espina, Nick Bartolome, Pol Bataoil, Gene Cerbo and Wilben Mayor.
I have said it before and I will say it again that there is really no doubt that apart from the PNP chief, PNP spokespersons are easily among the PNP officials who literally sleep late at night and wake up very early in the morning to answer queries from the Philippine and international media.
These officials’ main job is to daily answer bright and intelligent questions to the most absurd, speculative and nonsense things, all in the interest of reform and transparency and good police-community relationship. They also would be luck enough if they are serving PNP chiefs who literally can speak for themselves or are known ‘Darling of the Press’ like Gen. Eleazar.
During his term, Gen. Sinas made history when he appointed Usana as the 1st PNPA graduate to become a PNP spokesman or the Chief,PIO.
The silent but unassuming Olay replaced Usana shortly after the latter retired. Prior to his designation as new PNP spokesman, Olay was the deputy director of the PNP Directorate for Operations.
He also briefly commanded the PNP Health Service in 2020 before being designated as Deputy Regional Director for Administration of the National Capital Region Police Office and Deputy Director of the PNP Directorate for Comptrollership on the same year.
PNP spokesmen past and present have all made good in their career past and present. The PNP-PIO in fact had already produced three brilliant Chiefs, PNP already: my wedding Ninong Art Lomibao of PMA Class 1972, my Idol Nick Bartolome of PMA Class 1980 (my family and I would like to offer our deepest prayers and sympathies too to the Bartolome family for the demise of the Bartolome patriarch) and my Neighbor Dindo Espina of PMA Class 1981, the 19th head—Officer-in-Charge-of the PNP.
PNP spokesmen really made or make good in their military and police career, giving the PNP-PIO the distinction of being a rich source of outstanding police officers, most notably a breeding ground of future PNP chiefs unlike in the past when being a spokesman was considered a lowly position in the defunct PC-INP and later the PNP where he is serving as the mouthpiece of the organization.
What separates these police spokesmen from the rest is their ability to understand and communicate with the media-whether in good or bad times. Mostly graduates of the toughest military schooling here and abroad, these intelligence and operations officers were plucked out from their previous assignment to speak in behalf of the PNP.
I’ll tell you it’s a very thankless job where they literally have to rise from their bed as early as 4 in the morning to answer radio interviews and go to bed past midnight just to attend late-night television talk shows. There is really no money in the PNP-PIO—meaning it is not a ‘juicy PNP position’ but they didn’t care and diligently did their job.
Apart from Generals Lomibao, Bartolome and Espina, other past PNP spokesperson who have excelled in their own distinct way include Gen. Maralit, the last spokesman of the defunct Constabulary-Integrated National Police who, after Gen. Wycoco became the 2nd spokesman of the PNP when it was established in 1991. He became a Cordillera police director and head of the PNP-HPG and later the Directorate for Police-Community Relations before retiring;
Gen. George Poblete who went on to become a 2-star police general before retiring from the service; the late Gen. Wycoco who became a director of the Police Regional Office 1 and the National Capital Region Police Office; a PNP Deputy Chief for Administration and later NBI director; my ‘Ninong’ Gen. George Alino of PMA Class 1972 who went on to become a director of the QCPD, the Maritime Group and the Police Regional Office 6;
Gen. Virtus Gil of PMA Class 1971 who rose to become the PNP’s no. 2 official; Gen. Ike Galang of PMA Class 1972 who retired after commanding three police regional commands; another ‘Ninong,’ the brilliant tactician in the person of Gen. Vic Batac, also of PMA Class 1971 who went on to become the PNP Director for Logistics; the late Brig. Gen. Nap de los Santos of PMA Class 1975;
Gen. Pol Bataoil of PMA Class 1976 who became a director of the NCRPO, the PRO1 and the Directorate for Police-Community Relations before becoming a Pangasinan Congressional Representative and now mayor of Lingayen, Pangasinan; Gen. Sammy Pagdilao, a lawyer from PMA Class 1979 who commanded the PRO6 in Western Visayas and the PRO4-A in Calabarzon region before becoming the CIDG director, Gen. Jun Cruz of PMA Class 1982, a veteran intelligence and operations officer who became a Wester Visayas police director;
Then young Chief Inspector, now retired Brig. Gen. Noli Romana of PMA Class 1986 who used to be the Caraga director; and Gen. Rodrigo ‘Rambo’ de Gracia, a lawyer-classmate at PMA Class 1982 of Gen. Cruz who became a Cagayan police director and now mayor of Santa Teresita, Cagayan;
Maj. Gen. Gene Cerbo of PMA Class 1984 who was once a PNP Director for Intelligence; Brig. Gen. Artie Sindac, now a retired Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director from PMA Class 1984; retired Brig. Gen. Bart Tobias, a lawyer from PMA Class 1985; his mistah and fellow lawyer, Brig. Gen. Wilben Mayor who formerly commanded the Mimaropa police force;
Retired Major Gen. Bong Durana, a former SAF warrior who happened to be the 3rd member of PMA ‘Maringal’ Class of 1988 who headed the PNP-PIO, the 1st being Lieutenant Gen. Dionards Carlos and the 2nd, Brig. Gen. John Bulalacao who retired as Western Visayas police director;
Brig. Gen. Bernie Banac and Brig. Gen. Maeng Yu, both members of PMA Class 1992 and now the respective director of the PNP Training Service and Deputy Regional Director for Administration of the Calabarzon police force; Usana, Olay and now Col. Alba.
