ANOTHER batch of Quezon City policemen were relieved of their positions on Monday, bringing the number of reassigned cops in the city to more than 100 since July 1, the same day the new Quezon City Police District (QCPD) head took over.
In a press conference, QCPD head Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said that the 72 “ineffectual” policemen from different stations and units were ordered to vacate their current posts for various reasons, including alleged involvement in illegal drugs, theft, arbitrary detention, robbery-extortion, perjury and planting of evidence.
On floating status
They will be considered on floating status and temporarily placed under the jurisdiction of the District Headquarters Support Unit.
“In our own sound judgment, we will subject them to investigation and validation to make sure that the ongoing change we effected will be to the maximum, to attain the change expected by all of us, so that the people of Quezon City will feel more secure about their police,” Eleazar said.
Last month, the QCPD also announced the relief of 88 policemen—53 from the Station Anti-Illegal Drugs (SAID) unit of the Batasan police and 35 from the QCPD’s District Anti-Illegal Drugs Unit (DAID) after a DAID official suspected of selling recycled drugs was killed in an encounter with his colleagues.
Eleazar, however, clarified that 17 of the policemen from the Batasan police station’s SAID had been returned to their post after they were cleared of any involvement in illegal drugs.
The two former DAID policemen mentioned by President Duterte in a speech listing the government officials and policemen allegedly involved in drugs, SPO2 Johnny dela Cruz Mahilum and SPO1 Eric Arguta Lazo, have already been transferred to the Philippine National Police’s Personnel Holding and Accounting Office at Camp Crame.