DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 04 August) — Davao City mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte on Sunday lashed out anew at Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre, regional police chief here, calling him “professional mamotbotay” (liar). He also described as “senseless” what Torre claimed as manipulation of crime statistics to make it appear there is a low crime rate in the city.
Torre told reporters on Wednesday, July 31 that one of the reasons behind the frequent change of leadership in the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) and the relief of the 19 station commanders last month was the manipulation of crime statistics to create a misleading impression of low crime rates in the city.
In his podcast on July 28, Duterte said “lami sagpaon si Torre (Torre deserves a slap) as he criticized Torre’s directive to the police for a three-minute response time to crime incidents.
Torre said he was not aware of the city mayor’s frame of mind when he uttered the “slap” threat. He was quoted in a Newsline report on July 30 as saying the mayor’s threat was “not worth responding to” as he is a “professional police officer” and supports the mayor in maintaining peace and order. He also said “threatening someone is one thing, actually doing it is an entirely different thing.”
On Sunday morning, Duterte said Torre sounded“ like a Miss Universe contestant” in the Question and Answer portion of the beauty pageant.
“Put***I**, professional jud ka, professional kang mamotbotay nga pulis! (You are a professional liar police officer!),” Duterte said in his “Basta Dabawenyo” podcast posted on his CM Baste Duterte Facebook page.
The mayor said that if Torre were a professional officer, he must answer his requests on how the PRO-11-led recent reshuffling of Davao City Police Office could be justified through proven “theoretical framework, comparative analysis, and case study.”
To recall, 19 station commanders of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) were relieved during a reshuffle on July 8, 22 days after Torre took over as regional police chief.
Two days later, Col. Lito Patay assumed as city police director in the morning but was replaced at noon by Col. Sherwin Butil. In the evening, Col. Hansel Marantan was named acting city director.
“I will tell you, because you are jeopardizing a city of roughly more or less 2 million people, so what do you expect, maging masaya ako sa ginawa niyo na (I will be happy about your) administrative movements dito sa (here in) Davao?” Duterte asked.
The city mayor said he does not understand President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. administration’s frame of mind because they have not provided a “clear explanation” on the changes in the city’s police command.
He said the recent reshuffle is “unwarranted and has no consultation” with his office.
MindaNews tried to reach Torre and the PRO-XI spokesperson, Major Catherine dela Rey on the mayor’s pronouncements on Sunday but they have not responded as of 8 p.m.
Torre on July 31 told reporters that multiple entries in the blue books were either inaccurately classified as crimes or were marked as “for record only,” indicating that they were entered in the book solely for documentation and would not be reported as actual crimes.
“Yan ang literal na half-truth (That’s literally half-truth),” he said.
Torre added that the “blotter validation,” a regular mechanism employed by the Philippine National Police to verify reported cases, was conducted by subordinates that he brought to Davao from his previous deployment in Metro Manila to prevent any potential cover-up.
“Kasi yan sila nagtatakipan ang mga yan eh. Masisisi nyo ba ako kung mag isip ako na hindi (nila) sasabihin ang totoo? (Because they’re covering up something. Can you blame me for thinking that they might not tell the truth?),” he said.
But Mayor Duterte said Torre’s claims are “senseless.”
“Dili man nan a nato buhaton diri. Kung ana man ang ginahuna-huna ni Torre, dili pud na nako i-tolerate sa akong mga kapulisan kay dili pud ko gusto na di nako makuha unsa ang nahitabo on the ground” (We do not do that here. If that is what Torre thinks, I will not tolerate that among my police here because I do not also like that I will not get what is really happening on the ground,” the mayor said.
Marantan, the acting city police director, paid a courtesy call on the mayor on July 25.
He said Duterte gave him the marching instructions to keep the Kadayawan Festival this month safe and secure for residents and tourists. He assured the mayor he would focus on this.
“The mayor’s instruction is very clear – to protect the city and keep it safe for everyone,” Marantan told reporters. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
