Zamboanga City cop chief sacked

ZAMBOANGA City, Philippines - The city's acting police director has been sacked from his post due to the spate of shooting incidents since the assumption of newly-elected Mayor Ma. Isabel Climaco-Salazar.

Chief Superintendent Juanito Vaño, Police Regional Office 9 (PRO) director, said Senior Superintendent Chiquito Malayo will replace Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo as officer-in-charge of the city police office.

De Ocampo's relief came barely four days after Salazar personally went around the city and inspected the policemen assigned in the graveyard shift.

“My role precisely is really to clean up the city of all of these killings. And I have given marching orders to the police day in and day out and I am patrolling,” Salazar said.

“I am making sure that traffic patrol officers are doing their jobs because we spend more than P3 millions every quarter as assistance subsidy to the police. But they have to give back to the people," she added.

As the lady chief executive was going around the city, she made a surprise visit to a fire department station on Thursday night and caught some firemen sleeping while on duty.

The new city mayor decided to change the local police's leadership right after making the rounds.