Nab New Year firing suspects in 24 hours or face ax, commanders told

Commanders in Metro Manila police who will fail to arrest suspects of indiscriminate firing cases during the New Year revelries within 24 hours will be relieved from their posts.

In a memorandum issued by the National Capital Region Police Office, it ordered all police heads to increase police presence in Metro Manila and deploy personnel to conduct patrol operations to prevent cases of indiscriminate firing and the use of banned firecrackers.

Chief Supt. Rolando Nana, Deputy NCRPO Director for Operations, instructed that the deployment should start on or before 5 p.m. of Dec. 31, 2016 to 5 a.m. January 1, 2017.

“Death or injury caused by illegal discharge of firearms and indiscriminate firing wherein suspects are not arrested within 24 hours shall be a ground for immediate relief of the chief of police or station commander,” Nana said.

Whenever two chiefs of police or station commanders are relieved in the same district, the respective district director will be relieved.

Relief of two district directors means the NCRPO regional director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde will be relieved.

At the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, some administrative personnel will be pulled out of their offices to be deployed as augmentation forces to monitor and patrol in Metro Manila.

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PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said an accounting of Crame-based personnel will be held 4 p.m. Saturday in front of the National Headquarters building before they will be deployed to the streets.

Earlier this month, the PNP leadership decided to forego for the first time in a decade the annual tradition of muzzle taping of cops’ firearms to prevent indiscriminate firing among police officers. CDG