Maguindanao has new police director

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The new police director of Maguindanao assumed Thursday via a traditional command turnover rite at Camp SK Pendatun in Parang, Maguindanao.

Col. Roel Sermese took over from the outgoing Maguindanao police director, Col. Christopher Panapan during a simple program at the Maringal Lounge in Camp SK Pendatun, where the headquarters of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is located.

Officials of PRO-BAR told reporters the replacement of Panapan was not a consequence of Tuesday’s fatal ambush of the chief of police of Ampatuan town, Lt. Reynaldo Samson, and his aide, Cpl. Salipudin Endab.

Samson, Endab and three others, M/Sgt. Renante Quinalayo and Corporals Rogelio Dela Cuesta, Jr. and Marc Clint Dayaday, were together in a patrol vehicle, en route to Barangay Kapinpilan in Ampatuan for a law-enforcement mission, when gunmen positioned along the road shot them with assault rifles.

Quinalayo, Dela Cuesta and Dayaday were wounded in the attack, now confined in a hospital in Esperanza town in Sultan Kudarat.

Panapan had served as police director of Lanao del Sur prior before he got to the helm of the Maguindanao provincial police, in acting capacity, shortly after the May 9, 2022 local and national elections.