8 Metro Manila police officials sacked over illegal gambling

Manila, Philippines — Eight police commanders in Metro Manila who failed to curb illegal gambling operations in their areas were relieved from their posts yesterday.

The police officials failed to comply with the directive of Philippine National Police chief Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa to address the rampant illegal gambling activities in their jurisdictions.

These reports were validated by the police Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group through raids of gambling dens and seizure of video karera machines.

Five of the police officials are assigned with the Southern Police District. Three of them are Captains Ricky Culanding, Rommel Bulan, and Marvin Oloan, commanders of Police Community Precincts (PCPs) 1, 2 and 3 in Pasay City.

Two more officials are Majors Christopher Mercado and Elmer Gutierrez of PCPs 2 and 3 in Muntinlupa City.

Also relieved from his post is Maj. Fortunato Ecle Jr., officer-in-charge of the Cubao police station in Quezon City.

The remaining two are Majors Joebie Astucia and Merben Bryan Lago, commanders of PCPs  3 and 5 in Caloocan City.

They were reassigned to the Regional Police Holding and Accounting Section of the National Capital Region Police Office at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.