Metro Manila will have a new police chief starting Friday, after the incumbent chief was reassigned to PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.

 

PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome named Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina as the new head of the Metro Manila police, radio dzBB's Benjie Liwanag Jr. reported.

 

Espina is to replace Police Director Alan Purisima, who will be the chief of the PNP directorial staff at Camp Crame, the report added.

 

Purisima will thus replace the retiring Deputy Director General Arturo Cacdac Jr.

 

Espina, who presently heads the PNP Highway Patrol Group, is to assume his post on Friday.

 

He will also face a challenge of eradicating a perception of poor peace and order in Metro Manila, in the wake of recent shootings and robberies, many of them involving robbers riding in tandem on motorcycles. — ELR, GMA News