Win back residents’ trust, mayor tells new Caloocan cops

Oscar Malapitan

Two days after the overhaul of the entire Caloocan City police was completed, Mayor Oscar Malapitan warned the new force of their daunting task ahead: winning back the residents’ trust.

“Let’s bring back the peace and the faith of Caloocan residents in their police force,” Malapitan said, sending out a message to the newly assigned officers in an Inquirer interview on Saturday. “The residents are expecting you to totally change the police force.”

The mayor also said he would count on them to address concerns other than illegal drugs. He mentioned illegal cockfights and gambling, especially the operation of video karera machines, and menfolk going shirtless in the streets.

“It will be tough because they’re totally starting from zero,” said the mayor, who had visited the local precincts together with the city police chief, Senior Supt. Jemar Modequillo, to meet some of the new arrivals and instruct them to immediately establish rapport with barangay officials.

A thousand strong contingent from the National Capital Region Police Office arrived in the city on Friday to replace a force whose image had been tarnished by controversial operations related to the war on drugs, like the killing of two teenage suspects last month and the alleged robbery of a house by officers conducting a warrantless search.

The mayor noted that Caloocan was adjudged the “most peaceful city” in Metro Manila in 2014 and 2015, and then cited for having the “best police station” in August this year.

But the recent actions of a few bad eggs in the force, he said, “erased all the good things I had accomplished.”