QCPD gets new chief after road rage fiasco

CONSEQUENCES Quezon City Police District chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III (left) says in an interview before he submits his resignation that he “really deeply regrets” holding a press briefing for road rage suspect Wilfredo Gonzales who now has been fired twice—in 2016 by the Philippine National Police, and on Aug. 27 by the Supreme Court. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/VIDEO GRAB FROM YOUTUBE

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. has accepted the resignation of Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III and appointed his successor, following the blunder of the police in handling the road rage case between a dismissed gun-toting cop and a cyclist last month.

In an order dated Aug. 31 from the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Brig. Gen. Redrico Maranan was named acting QCPD chief. The turnover and assumption of command ceremony has not been announced yet.

The document was signed by Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Peralta, PNP’s No. 4 and chief of directorial staff, and Maj. Gen. Robert Rodriquez, head of the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management.

Prior to his new assignment, Maranan was the chief of the PNP Public Information Office (PIO).

Col. Jean Fajardo, the current PNP spokesperson, was named the new PNP PIO chief. She will be the first ever female spokesperson and PIO chief—both designations traditionally held by a single police official—in the history of PNP.

Maranan is not new to the QCPD. Before he was named PIO chief in October 2022, he was the third-highest official at the QCPD as deputy district director for operations.

Maranan is a member of the Philippine National Police Academy Patnubay Class of 1995. He also holds graduate degrees in management major in development and security and business administration from Wesleyan University.

Torre submitted his courtesy resignation to Acorda on Wednesday to give way to an impartial probe for lapses committed by him and his men after organizing a press conference at the QCPD headquarters in Camp Karingal on Aug. 27 with Wilfredo Gonzales, a dismissed police officer of the QCPD and road rage suspect who drew his gun and aimed it at an unarmed cyclist on Aug. 8.

‘Inappropriate’ presscon

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte also called out Torre for conducting the “inappropriate” presscon. Torre had since apologized, saying he “really deeply [regretted] holding the press briefing.”

Torre denied giving special treatment to Gonzales, saying he did not know or have ever met him before the press conference.

Meanwhile, National Capital Region Police Office chief Brig. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. formed an investigation team to look into the violations committed by the QCPD for bungling the handling of the case.

“The probe team will look into the lapses he (Torre) may have committed, as the district director of QCPD, including the lapses of investigators in Galas police station, including the chief of police of Galas, from Aug. 8 until that day on Aug. 27,” Nartatez said in an ANC interview on Thursday.

For Nartatez, Gonzales should have been arrested by the police shortly after he hit and pulled a gun on a cyclist during the altercation near Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City on Aug. 8.

A video of the incident went viral on social media weeks after, followed by the QCPD press conference on Aug. 27.

Meanwhile, Congress may have to pass a new law imposing stiffer penalties involving road rage violence in the wake of recent incidents of hot-headed motorists assaulting other road users in Metro Manila, Sen. JV Ejercito said on Friday.

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