‘Euro General’ promoted despite graft case

A senior police official facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly carrying almost P7-million worth of undeclared money outside of the country was promoted to a higher rank on Thursday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said. Executive officer to the PNP director for comptrollership Tomas Rentoy III, one of the so-called “Euro generals," was among the three senior police officials promoted to the rank of chief superintendent, PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said in a statement. Also promoted were Alex Paul Monteagudo, deputy director for investigation and detective management, and Elpidio De Asis, Jr., executive officer of the Directorate for Information and Communication Technology Management. George Piano, the PNP director for information and communication technology, was meanwhile promoted to police director, equivalent to the rank of a two-star police general. The promotions were approved by President Benigno Aquino III upon the recommendation of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa based on the evaluation of the PNP Senior Officers Placement and Promotion Board (SOPPB). Verzosa officiated the pinning of ranks in the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, Cruz said. 2008 Moscow trip Rentoy was one of the 11 cops charged with graft for allegedly carrying 105,000 euros to Moscow to attend an International Police (Interpol) assembly. Among those charged were former police Director Eliseo dela Paz, Superintendent Samuel Rodriguez, Chief Superintendent Orlando Pestaño, Superintendent Elmer Pelobello, Deputy Director General Emmanuel Carta, Deputy Director General Ismael Rafanan, and directors Romeo Ricardo, German Doria, Silverio Alarcio Jr., and Jaime Caringal. The police officials flew to Russia in late 2008 for the Interpol assembly in St. Petersburg. On their way out of Russia, De la Paz, the group’s disbursement officer, was stopped at the airport and later detained for carrying an undeclared amount in excess of the allowable limit. De la Paz was later found out to be allegedly carrying P9.2 million — P2.9 million for travel expenses and P6.9 million as contingency funds. He claimed the money was a "cash advance," but Verzosa said the amount was meant for the purchase of spy gears that had been illegally released. Former Director General Avelino Razon, the head of the PNP that time, admitted that he did not know why De la Paz's group brought with them such a huge amount of money, adding he only approved P2.314 million for the travel expenses of the eight PNP officers as indicated in his letter to then Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. Razon noted that police spouses were not included in the list of people going to the conference. Some of the officers brought along their wives to the trip. The police officials were later asked to return the travel funds. Then PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said the embroiled officials were considered "cleared by the PNP" after the entire amount was returned. - KBK, GMANews.TV