By Romie Evangelista

A senior police officer has assumed his post as chief of the national police’s Cordillera Autonomous Region, more than four months after he was implicated in the allegedly irregular release of P6.9 million in funds for use by the “euro generals” who attended the Interpol summit in Russia last October.

Chief Supt. Orlando Pestano, former head of the 14th Finance Division, replaced Chief Supt. Eugene Martin who was named head of the directorate for intelligence last Thursday.

Police Director General Jesus Verzosa presided over the turnover ceremony from Martin to Pestano, which was held at the CAR office in Camp Dangwa, Benguet province.

Pestano is one of the officers who are under investigation by the Ombudsman for the unauthorized release of the P6.9-million intelligence funds. Converted into 195,000 euros, the money was later found in the possession of Director Eliseo de la Paz, former police comptroller, who was detained by Russian immigration authorities for failing to declare that he had exceeded the allowable limit on foreign currency holdings.

De la Paz and his wife, who were held for questioning about the money and where it came from, were eventually freed and cleared by the Russians.

When news of the arrest of the De la Pazes broke out, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Police Commission conducted separate probes on the incident.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group forwarded all its records on the investigation into the “euro generals” to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The CIDG report said Pestano was the police officer who went to see De la Paz to confirm the latter’s request for P10 million for the allowance of the PNP delegation to the 77th Interpol General Assembly in St. Petersburg.