Faces of the News: Oscar Albayalde

ILLUSTRATION BY RENE ELEVERA

“The stricter, the better,” President Rodrigo Duterte said of his criteria for the next head of the Philippine National Police.

That narrowed down his choice to National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Oscar Albayalde.

As Metro Manila’s top cop, his tenure was defined by his willingness to sack his own officers for their misdeeds.

“The NCRPO is no place for bad eggs,” he declared.

In September last year, Albayalde famously sacked Caloocan City’s entire police force after a series of controversial killings involving teenage drug suspects.

He has also been known to roam the capital past midnight on his motorbike to conduct surprise inspections of police stations, swiftly relieving cops caught snoozing on the job.

But what endeared him most to the President was his staunch support of the war on drugs that he vowed to continue as PNP chief.

“We are not violating human rights,” he said of “Oplan Tokhang.”