Caloocan narcs sacked over missed targets

DUE TO their poor performance, the officers making up the antinarcotics unit of the Caloocan City police have been relieved of their posts.

Senior Supt. Bartolome Bustamante, the city’s chief of police, ordered a revamp of the Anti-Illegal Drug Special Operations Task Force after it was observed that other police teams at the precinct level were conducting more raids and making more arrests.

All 13 members of the task force, including their head, Senior Insp. Amor Cerillo, were replaced and “only the encoders” were left, Bustamante told the Inquirer in a recent interview.

“There was something wrong. They are not meeting our targets; the police community precincts have more arrests than them; they (task force members) sometimes had no accomplishment in a week,” he added.

Cerillo was replaced on Saturday by Chief Insp. Ricardo Cristobal, former deputy chief of North Extension Office and head of the patrol unit.

In an interview, Cerillo, who served as task force chief for only six months, blamed his team’s dismal showing on the lack of manpower and some of his men “becoming too familiar with the people they deal with.’’

He also admitted that he was “unable to gain their loyalty or command them to go all-out in the campaign against drugs.”

“It is very hard to establish assets (informants) since most of them are being killed,” said Cerillo, who was reassigned as chief of the Police Community Precinct 5 in Camarin.

Data from the Philippine National Police show that since the start of the year, 70 persons suspected of drug use and drug peddling were arrested in Caloocan, 66 in Malabon City, 66 in Valenzuela City and 81 in Navotas City. The four local government units make up the Northern Police District.