DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 May) – Police Colonel Richard Bad-ang was relieved as the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) director due to an internal investigation involving the deaths last March of seven individuals allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.
He served as DCPO chief just for only two months.
Bad-ang’s removal was confirmed by Police Regional Office – Region 11 (PRO-11) spokesperson Catherine Dela Rey on Thursday noon.
“Nahulog sa administrative relief ang director sa DCPO, tinuod nga na-relieve siya as city director (It’s true. He was administratively relieved and no longer the city director),” Dela Rey told the city government-run Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR).
Dela Rey said Bad-ang’s relief is part of the ongoing motu proprio (own initiative) investigation being conducted by the PRO-11 Regional Internal Affairs Service concerning the seven people who were killed during police anti-drug operations under his watch.
The deaths were recorded between March 24 to 26, or within three days.
To recall, Mayor Sebastian Duterte declared a war against illegal drugs during the DCPO city director turnover ceremony last March 23.
Hours later, the first blood was spilled at 12:56 a.m. on March 24 when an alleged drug pusher was killed in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Communal in Buhangin.
When Duterte declared the “war against drugs,” he said he will kill those who will not stop selling or using drugs, or if they won’t leave the city.
Col. Rolindo Soguilon, PRO-11 deputy regional director for operations, was designated DCPO officer-in-charge vice Bad-ang.
Dela Rey said Bad-ang’s relief is part of PRO-11’s “transparent investigation” on the deadly anti-drug police operations, so that “he cannot influence the witnesses nor tamper with the evidence.”
If Bad-ang is proven innocent, he can go back, depending on the command’s decision, Dela Rey said.
Last March 26, Bad-ang told reporters that the mayor had not given him a direct, standing order but during his assumption as the city director, he said Duterte’s earlier pronouncement of war on drugs “was already a standing order.”
For Bad-ang then, “Oplan Tokhang” (or “Toktok Hangyo,” meaning to knock on doors and ask drug pushers/users to stop what they’re doing) still remains.
“Most of those we talked to, they voluntarily stop, because they know they are being monitored,” Bad-ang said then.
DCPO spokesperson Captain Hazel Tuazon said Duterte’s war on drugs declaration “is nothing new,” as the city’s drugs war started back to the incumbent mayor’s father, former mayor and former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Under the younger Duterte, Tuazon said the DCPO has been conducting regular anti-drug operations, but has apparently gained media attention only when the mayor used the word “war” in the campaign against drugs.
The latest data from the DCPO showed that as of January 1 to May 3, 2024, they conducted 489 operations against illegal drugs, resulting to the arrest of 611 individuals, deaths of 30 suspects (seven during Bad-ang’s watch) and the filing of 720 cases.
MindaNews sought Bad-ang for comments, but he was not answering phone calls as of posting.
Bad-ang succeeded Colonel Richard Lupaz. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
