OF the several major contenders for the top Philippine National Police post to be vacated by General Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar when he retires this coming November 13, probably and lately the most controversial and the one who has attracted the attention of the country in general and the Senate and the opposition in particular is Major General Rhodel O. Sermonia, a known police-community relations expert.

A member of Philippine Military Academy ‘Makatao’ Class of 1989, Sermonia is the youngest among the ‘Makatao’s’ who joined the PNP in 1991 as he will be retiring on January 26, 2024. It means that under a new Philippine president, he will still have some 30 more months left in the service.

Now the PNP Director for Operations, Maj. Gen. Sermonia was put into the spotlight when he came under fire from former PNP chief-turned Senator Panfilo ‘Ping’ M. Lacson since last August for alleged ‘politicking.’

Last August, Sen. Lacson, the first to declare his intention to seek the presidency in May 2022, criticized Sermonia for allegedly using a portion of the anti-insurgency budget to instruct the listing of names among barangay residents. The veteran lawmaker maintained that the said PCR program may be used for election purposes.

During the deliberations of the PNP budget for Fiscal Year 2022 this week, the well-respected former PNP chief again singled out Sermonia of allegedly organizing a Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Group and Force Multipliers which could be used in politics when the role of the police should be limited to internal security only.

However, Sen. Lacson admitted that Sermonia is a good officer and one who performs well in his assignments since his junior days.

The PNP leadership and even another former PNP chief, now Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ M. de la Rosa defended those police-community relations programs to harness the support of the citizenry in the fight against criminality, terror and corruption and said they have nothing to do with politics. Sen. de la Rosa also said that the program organizing OFWs and their families started when he was appointed by President Duterte as his first PNP chief in 2016.

He said that at that time, many OFWs have called him and expressed their fear that the war on drugs might affect the safety of their families in the Philippines. De la Rosa said that he then ordered Sermonia, then the director of the Police-Community Relations Group to look into the concerns of the OFWs, thus the birth of a program called the Global Peace Community Relations which looks into the welfare of OFWs through the police attaches in countries where they are working.

Officials also came to the defense of Sermonia whom they portrayed as a PNP general with ‘unquestionable loyalty, dedication to service and a matured, seasoned and well-rounded official with a good service reputation.’

Sermonia likes to recall an incident during his junior days when President Duterte, then a Davao City congressman defended him over a controversial police operation during the short-lived Joseph Estrada administration.

It turned out that that Sermonia led an anti-narcotics operation in Caloocan City in April 2000 which led in the shooting of a son of Representative Luis ‘Baby’ Asistio,’ then a known Estrada ally.

Asistio’s son Luis alias ‘Piting,’ then 32, and his live-in partner were both shot during the buy-bust operation conducted by a team of detectives from the Bulacan Criminal Investigation and Detection Group led by then Chief Inspector Sermonia.

Sermonia and his team said they were forced to defend themselves when the young Asistio sensed he was being entrapped and started firing at them with his pistol in Kaunlaran Village.

Recovered from the suspect’s possession were an unlicensed cal. .45 pistol with a magazine containing 10 live ammunition, some 214 grams of shabu worth P400,000, the marked money, several drug paraphernalia and dried marijuana leaves.

Then Rep. Asistio, a known member of the so-called ‘midnight cabinet’ of Estrada or his very close friends accused Sermonia and his team of concocting evidence against his son.

However, Rep. Duterte, then already known as a very much against illegal drugs defended him from Asistio’s charges which could have ruined his entire career.

Sermonia said that without then Rep. Duterte’s help, he may have not reached his present position and thus would be very glad to serve the President and Senator Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go to show his gratitude to the two.

Sermonia’s known maverick approach in fighting criminality specifically illegal drugs, insurgency and terrorism has earned him accolades from many politicians and the public. He used to be the chief of the Dasmariñas City Police Station in Cavite and provincial director of Bataan where his template on the war on drugs served as an inspiration for other Central Luzon and Calabarzon governors and mayors.

As an officer of the PNP-CIDG, he got involved in the neutralization of elusive members of the Patinio Kidnapping-for-Ransom Group, the killing of six armed members of the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng Group during a shootout in Dasmariñas City; and the death of two ranking New People’s Army officers following a gunbattle in General Trias, Cavite.

As chief of the CIDG’s Task Force Maverick, he was also responsible in the neutralization of seven members of two notorious carnapping, robbery-holdup and hijacking syndicates in Metro Manila and Laguna province.

Sermonia’s good performance earned him three Best Junior Officer of the Year awards from the PNP. He is also one of the Metrobank Foundation Inc. (MBFI) 2003 Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service In 2019, the MBFI bestowed on him the Award for Continuing Excellence in the Service.

He was also a recipient of the 2004 PMA Cavalier Award for Police Operations, previous winners of which include de la Rosa, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Dirrector General Alex Paul I. Monteagudo, former PNP chief, Gen. Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan and Gen. Eleazar.

The 2-star police general was also a two-time finalist in the Civil Service Commission’s Dangal ng Bayan and Lingkod Awards in 2004 and 2004. In 2013, he got the Senior Officer of the Year Award for the same search and became a national semi-finalist in the 2016 and 2021 CSC’s Presidential Lingkod Bayan Awards.

In partnership with Presidential Communications Operations Office chief Martin Andanar, Sermonia helped launched a massive grassroots immersion campaign in the country to inform the people of good governance and better services of the government specifically during the pandemic vis-à-vis the country’s problems on illegal drugs and insurgency thru the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC).

It was under him when the PNP Directorate for Police-Community Relations and the Police Community Affairs Development Group created different mechanisms of partnership with the citizenry including the Joint Industrial Peace Concerns Office; Kabataan Kontra Droga At Terorism,; Kaligtasan at Kalikasan ; Global Peace Community Relations; the multi-media public service program Rektang Konek, Aksyon Agad, and the BARANGAYanihan which have earned him enemies from the Left including those in Congress.

Thus, it could be said that he has a knack for mobilizing people into action specifically when it comes to addressing the communist threat and other concerns on peace and order.

A few months ago, President Duterte even inducted officers of the Coalition of Lingkod Bayan Advocacy Support Gorups and Force Multipliers in Camp Crame which were mobilized by Sermonia to help propagate the government’s programs in the grassroot level.

Known for his hands-on style of leadership, supporters of Sermonia in the PNP said his notable experience will help the Duterte government continue its legacy with utmost commitment as they maintained the time is ripe for the President to do away with his ‘revolving door policy’ and appoint a PNP chief that can lead the force beyond the election period.

(To be continued: DANAO AND THE DDS IN THE PNP)