New police chief takes over after Cebu town ambush

CEBU CITY — A new chief of police takes over in Poro town on Camotes Island, Cebu on Thursday, three days after its head was killed in an ambush by two unidentified men who were reportedly linked to drug syndicate operating on the island.

READ: Cebu town police chief shot dead in ambush
Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Clifford Gairanod appointed Insp. Andres Alpas as Poro police chief whose standing order was to intensify the anti-drug campaign not just in the municipality but the entire island which consisted of three other towns – Pilar, Tudela and San Francisco.

Alpas, who was deputy chief of the Naga City Police Station, assumed his new assignment on Thursday, replacing Senior Insp. Jonas Tahanlangit, who was killed by two men on board a motorcycle shortly after arriving at the port of Consuelo, San Francisco.

Gairanod said he wanted Alpas to intensify the anti-drug operation in the town.

He also ordered Alpas to lift the morale of his men following the death of Tahanlangit.

Gairanod also sent on Thursday an eight-man team from the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) headed by Chief Insp. Clark Arriola to Camotes Island to look into the death of Tahanlangit.

Arriola’s team was expected to secure a copy of the footage from closed circuit television cameras in a bid to identify the perpetrators.
The IDMB team will also get statements from witnesses in the site of the ambush, about a kilometer from the port of Consuelo.

Gairanod said he also tasked Arriola to represent him in installing Alpas as police chief in Poro. CDG