DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 Dec) – Col. Hansel Marantan, acting Davao City Police Office (DCPO) chief, said he hopes to remain in Davao City after five months of being assigned here.
Asked by reporters of his plans for Davao City’s peace and order for 2025 at the sidelines of the Rizal Day commemoration Monday morning, Marantan said, “I hope I will still be here in 2025.”
Marantan was assigned to the city through a peculiar reshuffle of city directors on July 10 when three officers took over command of the DCPO in one single day.
On July 8, or 22 days after Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III took over as director of the Police Regional Office -Davao Region (PRO-11), 19 station commanders of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) were relieved during a reshuffle.
Torre III is now the chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Two days later, Col. Lito Patay assumed office as city police director in the morning but was replaced at noon by Col. Sherwin Butil. In the evening, Marantan was named acting city director.
It was a decision by the Philippine National Police national headquarters in Camp Crame, confirmed Maj. Catherine dela Rey, PRO-11 spokesperson, who added that it was just a part of the “normal process” of relief of police officers.
“I hope I will still be here in 2025. The plan for 2025 is to continue with all the guidelines by the city government because [it] is my direct boss here in Davao City and so is the guidance of the chief PNP and the regional director,” Marantan said.
Marantan added that under his watch, DCPO will continue to advocate for maintaining peace and order in the city, and to help in ensuring city ordinances – such as the city’s firecracker ban – will be implemented.
“I will also include the pieces of guidance, priority guidelines of the [Interior and Local Government Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla] himself, which is to maintain peace and order,” he added.
Probed further by the media about what he meant for his “hopes” to remain in the city, Marantan said: “Everything is changing. Officers come and go. There are always statements like that.”
Asked if they had talked with Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte and if he wanted him to be in the city for good, Marantan told reporters, “We have talked with the mayor, [but if he wanted me to be here], you ask him.”
Back then the City Council here challenged Marantan’s assignment in the city, stating that it might be “unlawful.”
Councilor Luna Acosta, in a privilege speech last July, claimed that Marantan’s appointment as DCPO chief violated Republic Act 6975 (the Department of the Interior and Local Government Act of 1990) and its amendment, RA 8551 (PNP Reform and Reorganization Act of 1998).
According to these laws, the city mayor has the authority to select the chief of police from a list of five candidates recommended by the PNP regional director.
Ideally, Acosta then said, the candidates should come from the same city, province, or municipality.
But Torre, the PRO-11 director at that time, defended Marantan’s appointment, citing Sec. 26 of RA 6975: “The command and direction of the PNP shall be vested in the Chief of the PNP who shall have the power to direct and control tactical as well as strategic movements, deployment, placement, utilization of the PNP or any of its units and personnel, including its equipment, facilities and other resources.”
Almost a month after Marantan’s appointment, Mayor Duterte, in his state of the city address, said he will give Marantan a chance because “perhaps he has no choice. He is here to do his job, and afraid that he will be relieved.” (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)