POLICE Regional Office 7 Director Valeriano de Leon has named Police Colonel Engelbert Zipagan Soriano officer-in-charge (OIC) of the Cebu City Police Office, replacing Police Colonel Giovanie Maines beginning Friday, Dec. 27, 2019.
Soriano, who headed the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7’s operations division, hails from Luzon, where he began his police career in 1996. He has since held high positions in in the PNP.
Maines, the PRO 7 deputy regional director for operations, had taken on the OIC role in a concurrent capacity after Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan was relieved of her post as Cebu City Police Office director on Oct. 31.
Soriano’s selection means Vinluan will no longer be returning to the job.
Maines said Philippine National Police OIC Police Lieut. Gen. Archie Gamboa had given Vinluan a position in Camp Crame.
Vinluan had been relieved of her post pending the investigation by the Regional Internal Affairs Service 7 on the Oct. 25, 2019 fatal ambush of Clarin, Misamis Occidental Mayor David Navarro as a police convoy brought him to the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office to undergo inquest proceedings for a complaint filed by a massage parlor attendant.
Vinluan said Navarro was eighth on President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of high-value targets involved in the illegal drug trade. (AYB)