Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde designated on Tuesday Senior Supt. Bernard Banac as the new spokesman of the PNP and acting chief of the public information office (PIO).
Banac succeeded Chief Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. who had been named as the acting director of the PNP’s Directorate for Police Community Relations.
Banac, a member of the Philippine Military Academy “Tanglaw-Diwa” Class of 1992, was formerly the assistant chief of the Supervisory Office for Security and Investigative Agencies (SOSIA) based in Camp Crame.
As the spokesman and chief of the PIO, Banac performs the dual functions as the “mouthpiece” and “publicist” of the PNP leadership.
“My marching orders is to effectively communicate the programs and policies of the PNP with utmost transparency and of great service to the public,” Banac told members of the PNP Press Corps upon assuming the new post.
Banac obtained his master’s degree in development management from the Asian Institute of Management in 1999. The new PNP spokesman also underwent various local and international police and military trainings and courses in Washington and Louisiana in the United States, Kosovo, Ivory Coast and Thailand.
Banac was erstwhile chief of staff of the PNP Engineering Service and senior executive assistant to the chief PNP in 2015 and 2016.
He commanded the Sorsogon Police Provincial Office as provincial director in 2013 and had served as a company commander of the Special Action Force as a field grade officer in 1992.
Banac is a veteran of United Nations Peace-keeping missions where he served as Operations and Planning Officer in the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 2009 and technical adviser, UN Police Arms Embargo Cell in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2005.
The spokesman of the PNP is the official mouthpiece and publicist of the PNP on public information matters involving internal security and general peace and order and accomplishments of the PNP.
He is also considered as a personal staff officer of the PNP chief and holds the concurrent capacity as chief of PIO, the lead implementor of the PNP media relations policy.
At Camp Aguinaldo, meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. has assumed command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao Command (AFP-Eastmincom) based in Davao City in the continuing designations in the military.
Santos, former commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, replaced Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. following the latter’s earlier designation chief of staff of the Armed Forces.
Madrigal presided over the installation of Santos as his successor in his former post.
Santos is not new in Mindanao as he had been involved in a wide range of peace and security programs in the area before. An adept military officer, he was assigned to strategic military offices dealing with operations, intelligence and civil-military operations.
Santos is a member of the Philippine Militay Academy Class of 1986 and spent most of his junior years with the 39th Infantry Battalion, a unit deployed in various provinces in Mindanao. He had once headed the 11th Intelligence Service Unit based in Davao City.