MANILA, Philippines—The newly installed officer-in-charge of the Pasig Police Station said Monday he plans to put up an outpost at Mapayapa Compound, the alleged den of drug traffickers raided by narcotics operatives in mid-June.

Senior Superintendent Napoleon Villegas said a team of about four police officers, supported by civilian watchmen, would stand watch at the outpost to monitor the trade of illegal drugs in the area and other criminal activity.

“This way, the residents who live there will finally be able to sleep at night,” he said in an interview.

Villegas said the outpost need not be a permanent structure, but could be a simple moveable nipa hut to be manned by police officers and members of the city's Batas Ciudad Enforcement Office on a 24-hour basis.

The official, who formerly headed the Eastern Police District Mobile Force, said drugs and other criminal activities would be the focus of his attention as the new police chief.

He replaced Senior Superintendent Ramon De Jesus, who was relieved of his post two weeks after the July 19 raids conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on three houses in the site of the infamous shabu “tiangge (flea market)” at Mapayapa.

The early-morning raid led to the seizure of five half-filled sachets of a white crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu.

Villegas, 52, said he had already met Mayor Robert “Bobby” Eusebio who approved of his assumption of duty as officer-in-charge.

He said the Pasig police under his leadership would be in very close coordination with the local government and other sectors of the community, including non-governmental organizations.