Oscar Calderon

Oscar, the eldest of eight Calderon siblings, was born in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, on October 1, 1951.^[2] At the time of his appointment by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Calderon admitted in a radio interview that he was a "distant relative" of the latter.^[3] Shortly before his appointment, his younger brother, Comm. Leonard Calderon, became deputy chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.^[2][3]

Calderon was a member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class of 1973.^[1][2][3]

While in duty in Mindanao, he later married Ma. Theresa Larrabaster, a local beauty pageant titlist from General Santos. They had at least three children.^[2]

Calderon died on March 8, 2025, at the age of 73. He was later interred at the Heritage Park in Taguig.^[4]

After graduation from the PMA, he became a junior officer of the then Philippine Constabulary–Integrated National Police (PC–INP).^[2]

He spent most of his career in Visayas and Mindanao.^[2] Within his first decade in service,^[3] he even led campaigns against Moro secessionist rebels,^[2] particularly in the provinces of South Cotabato and Maguindanao, and the cities of Zamboanga, General Santos, and Davao while serving as Metro District commander.^[3]

He was later assigned at the then Criminal Investigation Service of the PC (which later became the PNP).^[3] He headed the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response and the Senior Officers Promotion Board;^[5] and served as well—as the police agency's deputy chief for administration.^[3] Also, he was the director for Central Luzon,^[6] Southern Tagalog, and Laguna; as well as head of the Directorate for Comptrollership, and deputy of the Directorate for Investigative and Detective Management.^[3]

Prior to becoming the PNP chief, he received 41 recognitions from the military and the police,^[3] including 18 awards and nine Military Merit Medals.^[2] Among them were a Bronze Cross for leading the 1985 rescue operation against a kidnap group in Cebu City;^[2][3] and the PNP Senior Officer of the Year Award (1992).^[3] Meanwhile, he was also involved in the arrest of former legislator Dennis Roldan, who had been accused of kidnapping.^[3]

In July 2006, Calderon, then police Deputy Director General, became the PNP chief, replacing Director General Arturo Lomibao.^[3] He was appointed over contenders such as: Deputy Director Generals, Servando Hizon, PNP comptroller; and Avelino Razon, PNP deputy chief for operations (his future successor).^[1][7]

In his first month in office, on August 1, President Arroyo imposed a ten-week deadline for the solution of high-profile killings of political activists and journalists during her term, particularly at least ten of them; as well as the arrest of suspects.^[8] The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the PNP were instructed for the special investigation, which was headed by Task Force Usig and whose deadline was on October 7 but only produced little progress as only few cases were filed.^[9] By the second week, Calderon claimed solving two of them.^[2]

Almost three months after his retirement from police service, on December 27, 2007, Calderon formally assumed the directorship of the Bureau of Corrections,^[10] a day after being appointed by the President to replace Ricardo Dapat following the reported unauthorized trip of another former legislator and rape convict Romeo Jalosjos.^[11] It was during his term that Jalosjos was only freed from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa in 2009.^[12]

Calderon was replaced by newly-installed President Benigno Aquino III (Arroyo's successor) in October 2010.^[13] In 2011, following the reported unauthorized trip of another former politician and homicide convict Antonio Leviste, DOJ investigators implicated Calderon for alleged special treatment to Leviste, during his term.^[14] He was also implicated by a newspaper source in the same case of murder convict Rolito Go.^[15]