President Duterte has told local chief executives to strengthen their campaigns against crime or be stripped of their control over the police.

In an interview in Panglao, Bohol, on Thursday, the President told reporters that mayors who could not maintain law and order in their cities or municipalities risked losing their police supervisory powers.

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“I am not satisfied with the way they responded to the problem. I see that there has always been a rise in the number of mayors who do not want to do their duties,” Mr. Duterte said.

The President also told local chief executives who could not perform their jobs to just let the vice mayor take over.

Better go…

“If that is the way you behave as a mayor, you better go. Give it to the vice mayors,” he said.

He also warned local chief executives and policemen against getting involved in illegal drugs and using their positions of power.

“If you are a mayor, councilor, barangay captain, a policeman or a military man and you use your office as a platform for drug operation, you’ll go first. I will not hesitate, I will not even blink,” he said.

The Philippine National Police is ready to take full control of police operations in local government units nationwide if local chief executives fail to enforce law and order in their areas, PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said on Friday.

Audit of LGUs

“It’s not actually taking over. You are actually in control, the operational control of the police. Because as a mayor, as a local chief executive, you should also know what is happening to your area,” Albayalde said in an interview at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

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On Thursday, Mr. Duterte said in a speech that he had ordered acting Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to audit cities and municipalities that continue to post high crime rates and buy-bust operations.

The President said he would fire the mayors, charge them with serious neglect of duty, and put policemen in charge of their jurisdictions.

“I told General Año, ‘You audit them, sir.’ And I said, the mayors who cannot control crime every now and then, there’s buy-bust here, buy-bust there. Everywhere. And it numbers like 20 buy-bust operations a day. You remove his policemen. I put mine. You are now the mayor,” Duterte said in Bohol.

No takeover

Albayalde clarified that the police would not take over the political responsibility of the local chief executives but would just assert full control of police functions in the locality.

Under the Local Government Code, the local chief executive oversees and manages the implementation of peace and order in his area of responsibility.

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