Ex-SAF OIC to replace Comendador

Taliño

The Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) will have a new regional director.

Chief Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr. yesterday confirmed he was among the police officials who were relieved from their posts.

“I’d like to thank all of you for the support you’ve given me in my capacity as OIC regional director for the last three months. Though my stint is short, history will judge me if I have done the best of my abilities when I took my oath,” he said in his Facebook post.

“I may or may not get another command but that’s fine with me. The most important thing is that I have always been loyal to persons who, I look up as a leader, to my duty and to my country,” he added.

Comendador, a native of the northern Cebu town of Sogod, is set to be replaced by Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, who served sa deputy head of the Intelligence Police Office of the National Capital Region.

But Taliño is better known as the combat-tested officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force (SAF) who gave a moving eulogy for the 44 SAF personnel who died in the botched operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January 2015 and who took over the helm of the elite police unit after SAF commander Police Director Getulio Napeñas was relieved of his post pending an investigation to be conducted by a board of inquiry on the tragic incident. Taliño will reportedly assume his post as PRO-7 director on Monday.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he would have wanted Comendador to stay as PRO-7 director.

“And then I heard he’s been relieved. I find it very disturbing, so I’m trying to get a clearer explanation what transpired,” he said.

Osmeña said he was impressed by what Comendador did during the past three months.

He said he also wanted Senior Supt. Benjamin Santos Jr. to be retained as Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director.

“This is a good working team (CCPO and PRO-7). They got the biggest drug lords around in 30 days. And many people were saying its impossible,” Osmeña said.

Two drug personalities – Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria and Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz – were killed in two separate operations of PRO-7.