BACOLOD City Police Office (BCPO) director Colonel Henry Binas has vowed to continue their operations against illegal drugs in the city after controversial police official Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido has been relieved as deputy chief for operations and head of the City Drug Enforcement of BCPO last week.
Espenido's relief was effective February 5 and he was reassigned to the office of the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.
The order was issued by Major General Hawthorne Binag, chief of the PNP directorial staff and was signed by General Reynaldo Biay of the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management.
Binas said he has not yet received the official copy of the order and he is still waiting for it from the Police Regional Office-Western Visayas or Camp Crame.
He said that in the meantime, he will manage the vacated post of Espenido with the help of Lieutenant Colonel Levy Pangue, deputy city director for administration, who also supervised the Police Station 3.
He said Espenido was a big help in the city's campaign against illegal drugs and vowed to continue their drug operations in various barangays.
Binas noted that BCPO was earlier awarded as best performing police unit in Western Visayas in its campaign against illegal drugs.
"We have a good accomplishments since January and we will continue our operations to neutralize the drug pushers and users here," Binas said.
Espenido earlier warned the illegal drug groups in Bacolod and Negros Occidental to cooperate or surrender and he also called Bacolod a "shabulized city" based on the recovery of large volumes of illegal drugs.
In 2016, Espenido was the chief of police in Albuera, Leyte when the town's then mayor, Rolando Espinsa, who was tagged as drug suspect, was shot to death inside a jail in Baybay City.
The following year, Espenido was reassigned to Ozamiz City where then Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, who was also linked to illegal drugs, was also killed in a police operation.