MANILA: The metropolitan police chief on Friday ordered the dismissal of an entire city police force after some of its members were suspects in the gruesome murders of three teenagers and others were filmed by security cameras robbing a house.
The 1,200-strong Caloocan city police force will be relieved in batches and replaced, metropolitan Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said. They will undergo 45 days of retraining, after which those not facing charges will be reassigned to other stations.
The Department of Justice has started an investigation based on a murder and torture complaint against four Caloocan policemen allegedly linked to the killing of 17-year-old student Kian Delos Santos during a drug raid last month.
The parents of two other teenagers have also filed double murder and torture complaints against two Caloocan policemen. Last week, CCTV footage purportedly showed 13 policemen robbing a house during a supposed drug raid.
President Rodrigo Duterte's crackdown on drugs, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of suspects, has come under renewed scrutiny after police gunned down Delos Santos. Police described him as a drug dealer who shot at them during a raid, but his family and witnesses said the student was shot dead as he pleaded for his life.