“Estrada, who only showed up later that day at the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, claimed he had suddenly contracted a bad case of cold feet upon seeing the horde of reporters tailing Eleazar ”

It was widely reported in the papers last week that Chief Inspector Allan Estrada, a Pasay City precinct commander, was thrown into the freezer for pulling a vanishing act a la Houdini during an unannounced visit by superiors at his office.

Estrada incurred the ire of Director Guillermo Eleazar when he “mysteriously vanished” from his room.

Estrada’s woes were exponentially compounded when the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief, C/Supt. Guillermo Eleazar and other ranking officials, who had tagged along during a surprise inspection of the Cultural Center of the Philippines police precinct at 2 a.m. during the height of Typhoon Domeng, were made to cool their heels outside his locked office room as he did not respond to the order to come out.

It was only after several tense minutes that on-duty personnel sheepishly revealed to Gen. Eleazar the existence of a rear door, which Estrada had used to slip out unnoticed.

In his haste, Estrada left behind several belongings – two .45 caliber pistols, a 9-mm and one M-16 Armalite – plus a bag, wallet and a pair of crumpled shorts.

Gen. Eleazar, curiously, didn’t blow his top as expected by the media, but instead was quick to explain that Estrada wasn’t being canned due to his absence from his post during the inspection sortie, but as a result of the extant befuddling circumstances.

Estrada, who only showed up later that day at the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, claimed he had suddenly contracted a bad case of cold feet upon seeing the horde of reporters tailing Eleazar.

He said he went home to his wife to avoid being a sorry spectacle on national television like several other colleagues, who were previously caught sleeping at their posts while on duty status, which in any honest-to-goodness police organization is considered a capital offense and punishable with expulsion from the service, or worse.

If, say, this were Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or Iraq, surely Estrada would be made to stand before a firing squad. But no such luck for him because this is the Philippines where serious transgressions can be overlooked with just a wink and a nod.

Well, he is currently on floating status at the Southern Police District in Fort Bonifacio while being investigated for the scandalous incident, which made the PNP a laughingstock (again) and the butt of countless jokes in traditional and social media.

However, as things go in the Philippine National Police (PNP), which is just like one big fraternity or old boys club where seniors “look out” for the juniors, Eleazar did offer an olive branch and hope of resurrection to Estrada — a “good official who is responsible and didn’t drink,” he pointed out.

Having said that, Gen. Eleazar’s kid glove treatment of Estrada, despite his lack of balls, should really come as no surprise because of Camp Crame’s penchant for “tolerating bad eggs.”

This, despite the vow of recently-installed PNP chief Oscar Albayalde that his first order of business upon assumption of command was to rid the organization of misfits.

Just the other week, Albayade was lambasted for the designation of C/Supt. Roberto Fajardo, currently on floating status in Camp Crame, to head the PNP’s Highway Patrol Group (HPG).

Recall, Fajardo was sacked as head of the Northern Police District (NPD) in August 2017 by former PNP chief Ronald de la Rosa to assuage an irate public demanding that heads should roll in connection with the death of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos.

The hapless teenager, it turned out, was mercilessly killed by Caloocan City policemen who are directly supervised by the NPD, as part of their tokhang activities.

Before he was relieved of his command, Fajardo even defended the actions of his boys by insisting, despite presentation of contrary evidence, that the victim wasn’t the angel he was being portrayed to be, but a drug pusher.

Fajardo’s case isn’t an isolated one. Another beneficiary of Albayalde’s largesse (when he still headed the NCRPO) was former Pasay City police chief Sr. Supt. Dionisio Bartolome, who was probably still celebrating the New Year when four heavily armed men strolled nonchalantly inside the Mabuhay Manor Hotel during the wee hours of January 2 and made off with some P4 million.

To cut to the chase, Albayalde, during a press conference, gave Bartolome exactly one week within which to solve the brazen robbery or else he’d lose his cushy assignment. The deadline lapsed on January 9, the feast day of the Black Nazarene, but Bartolome still got to cling onto his job.

(Bartolome’s luck ran out after a month when Albayalde, who initiated the practice of conducting surprise inspections, chanced upon several Pasay cops either sleeping or drinking alcohol while on duty. And he was moved to Muntinlupa City, which meant a demotion.)

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