A Quezon City police station commander was ordered transferred to Mindanao, joining 44 of his relocated colleagues.
Supt. Victor Pagulayan, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Station 3 (Talipapa), was reassigned to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) effective Aug. 1, according to an order from Camp Crame.
In a statement on Thursday, the QCPD director, Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, did not state the reason for the transfer, but officers interviewed by the Inquirer said it could be due to the persisting drug problem in Pagulayan’s area, especially in Barangay Culiat.
Pagulayan is set to be replaced by Supt. Danilo Mendoza, former police chief of Tanauan City and Batangas City, and former chief of the Southern Police District’s Special Operations Unit.
“He has my trust and confidence,” Eleazar said of Mendoza. “We need agents of change here.”
Mendoza, a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), will be handling an area that covers a section of Commonwealth Avenue in Tandang Sora, where the INC’s central church is located.
Asked if the INC requested Mendoza’s assignment, Eleazar maintained that the politically influential religious group had no hand in the decision.
The PNP earlier announced the transfer of at least 35 QCPD personnel from the District Anti-Illegal Drugs Division (DAIDD), District Special Operations Unit (DSOU) and some stations to different areas in Mindanao, such as Region IX, Caraga Region and ARMM.
Nine more policemen from DSOU and DAIDD were transferred to Mindanao two weeks ago.