MANILA – Police Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina reportedly resigned from his post as officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
According to at least three unnamed but well-placed sources from the PNP, Espina had already sent his resignation letter to President Benigno Aquino III last March 2015.
President Aquino, however, has yet to accept the resignation.
Last December 2014, Espina became PNP’s officer-in-charge, taking over the leadership of former Chief Director Alan Purisima. Espina’s resignation came four months earlier his scheduled retirement in July 2015. His resignation also came prior his promotion as the deputy chief of administration of the national police force, effective April 2015.
“He just wants the President to exercise his prerogative to appoint an acting PNP chief,” said a PNP high-ranking official, adding that the general wanted to give the President a free hand in choosing the permanent police force chief to replace Purisima.
“It was a very noble act on the part of OIC Espina,” he added.
Since Espina has not yet received a word from the President as of posting, he remains as the PNP OIC.
PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr., however, said that they had no official record of Espina’s resignation. He asserted that if the general really did resign, the police force should have known.
“Negative ‘yan… Officially, wala pang ganyan na record sa Philippine National Police. Kami ang unang makakaalam kung may pagbabago sa PNP. Kung may changes diyan, isa ako sa unang makakaalam,” he said.
(That’s negative… Officially, the Philippine National Police has no record. We will be the first to know if there are changes in the PNP. If there are indeed changes, I will be one of the firsts to know.)
“Normally, kapag may resignation, it will be through channels, maraming pagdadaanan. [But] with that, si PNP OIC (Espina) lang mismo ang makakapag confirm n’yan kung totoo man,” he added.
(Normally, if there is a resignation, it will be through channels, it will undergo a lot of processes. [But] with that, only PNP OIC (Espina) can confirm it if it’s true.)
Espina, for his part, has not released any official statement regarding the issue.