‘Most wanted’

At least 19 police station commanders in Davao City have been relieved from their posts. Their relief from posts was ordered by Southern Mindanao regional police office chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre. The latest rigodon obviously had the imprimatur of the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP). The latest mass relief of police station chiefs in Davao City happened again at the home residence of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

On the same day, Police Colonel Lito Patay assumed as the new chief of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO), replacing Police Col. Rolindo Suguilon as officer-in-charge (OIC). Torre reassigned the 19 police officers and spread them out to various posts in Davao Oriental, Davao de Oro, Davao Occidental as well as in Davao del Norte and at the regional office. And they were replaced by those also coming from different parts of the region.

Prior to his new post, Col. Patay once served as chief of the Tagum City police office in Davao del Norte. From Tagum, Patay was transferred to Police Station 6 in Batasan, Quezon City during the Duterte administration. Col. Patay was recently summoned by a House committee on human rights of the 19th Congress that looked into the reported extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of illegal drug suspects and other criminals during his watch as Station 6 police in Quezon City.

By way of a joke, the surname of Col. Patay is the Tagalog word for “dead” (if used as a noun) or “kill” (if used as a verb). It depends on how you pronounce it. But if you say it twice “patay-patay,” it means slowpoke.

Levity aside, the new DCPO chief spent most of his career as a police officer in the Davao region, according to his own testimony before Congress. But he hails from Siquijor and graduated from the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class of 1996. Previously serving only as the OIC, Col. Patay was then Deputy Regional Director for Operations at Police Regional Office (PRO) 11 when he replaced Davao City Director Col. Richard Bad-ang, who was earlier relieved due to the suspicious deaths of seven suspects involved in drug trafficking and illegal drugs.

The death of seven suspects came after Davao City