TWO days before Holy Week, the police chief of Caloocan City was sacked by Oscar Albayalde, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCPO).
Albayalde said the sacking of Senior Supt. Jemar Modequillo was caused by unsolved killings in the city.
He said there is a big number of unsolved cases in the city, including a series of killings blamed on policemen, since Modequillo was assigned in Caloocan last year. The unsolved killings included those of a couple last November, a former drug user last December, a pregnant woman in February, and riding in tandem in March.
Albayalde stressed in media interviews he did not condone killings remaining unsolved after months of investigation.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said there were reports of the existence of an armed group in Caloocan City whose job is to kill people, but Modequillo’s men failed to address the problem.
Thus, Modequillo was relieved because the killings remained unsolved under his watch.
A month before Modequillo assumed the post of Caloocan City police chief, the city’s police unit was “the most trusted police station” in Metro Manila, according to an independent survey conducted by the National Police Commission (Napolcom).
Modequillo was the head of the Parañaque City police when he was assigned by Albayalde to Caloocan City last September. This was after the controversial brutal killing by Caloocan cops of Kian de los Santos, a suspected 17-year-old drug runner.
Modequillo replaced Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna after the latter strongly defended his men’s killing of de los Santos. Malapitan was reportedly out of the country when Modequillo was sacked.
After his return, Nolan B. Sison, Malapitan’s chief information officer, told the BusinessMirror that the mayor’s reaction on the surprising relief of Modequillo was that the “police chief assignments are the PNP hierarchy’s decision based on their internal merits and demerits system. I respect their decision.”