NCRPO chief: Ex-Caloocan police chief’s reasoning for unsolved shooting incidents ‘unacceptable’

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde on Tuesday quickly dismissed the reason of former Caloocan City Police chief on why there are series of "unsolved shooting incidents" in his area.

Senior Superintendent Jemar Modequillo attributed the failure of the city police's to solve shooting incidents on the number of rookie police force under him.

“You cannot compare Caloocan City to other cities. [The others] are already manned by police who have been there 10, 20 years—compared to the one month, two months of the people here,” Modequillo was quoted as saying. 

But Albayalde said that such reasoning is “unacceptable” as he enumerated the advantages and disadvantages of having police officers assigned in a certain area for a long time.

“Merong advantage at disadvantage yung pulis na napakatagal na sa lugar...it does not follow na ‘pag ikaw ay bago don sa lugar ay hindi mo alam yung lugar na 'yon. Remember, kailan ba nangyari yung pag-relief natin sa lahat ng pulis doon, last year pa ‘yon,” Albayalde said.

“You think doon sa six, five months, hindi ka pa makapagrelate o maka-establish ng koneksyon mo doon? Well kung hindi sila nakapag-establish at that length of time ibig sabihin wala kang ginagawa ‘di ba,” he added.

“At kung minsan ‘pag ikaw sobrang tagal mo na doon sa lugar ay puro kaibigan mo na, pati yung mga gumagawa ng kalokohan minsan nagiging kaibigan mo na. There’s always this advantage and disadvantage diyan. Hindi pwedeng i-reason ‘yan, I cannot accept that reason,” Albayalde further said.

Modequillo was relieved from his post due to “unsolved series of incidents in his area.”

Over the past several weeks, Caloocan City has been in the headlines over several incidents including the killing of two people, one of them a minor, in Barangay 176; the dumping of two bodies in Barangay 129; the successive killing of two men in two different computer shops in one night; and the ambush of a Bureau of Customs broker inside his own car, among others.

In September last year, Modequillo replaced Senior Superintendent Chito Bersaluna, who was relieved from his post following the involvement of Caloocan City policemen on the death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos on August 16.

The entire Caloocan City Police district was also relieved from their posts last year over various controversies. A total of 104 of the 1,076 policemen who were relieved have failed their retraining.

The NCRPO chief said that more than a hundred Caloocan police officers who were relieved last year have already been assigned back to their station.

“Nakita naman natin na walang involvement at walang problema, binalik naman natin,” Albayalde said.

Aside from Modequillo, commanders of Manila Police District (MPD) Station 11 and Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 10 were also relieved from their respective posts over different issues.

MPD Station 11 commander Superintendent Amante Daro was relieved from his post due to unresolved cases which include the shooting incident inside a shopping mall in Divisoria, Manila.

Senior Superintendent Restituto Arcangel will take over as officer-in-charge of the Caloocan City Police while Superintendent Julius Domingo as officer-in-charge of MPD Station 11.

Meanwhile, QCPD Station 10 commander Superintendent Christian dela Cruz has also been relieved from his post “for having a filthy station.”

PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa after the accounting of personnel in the QCPD headquarters at Camp Karingal last week stopped in front of Station 10 along EDSA and even berated the cops to keep their surroundings clean.

Quezon City Police District chief Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said that Superintendent Ariel Capocao will take charge of QCPD Station 10. — RSJ, GMA News