DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 January) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday announced that P/Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, the officer in charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP) will be the next PNP Chief.
“We have the PNP Chief — I’m going to appoint you as the regular PNP,” Duterte said as he introduced officials iwth him on stage at the thanksgiving gathering with the Fraternal Order of Eagles at SMX Convention Center here.
But he told Gamboa, “you and I will have — you and Secretary (Eduardo) Año and I will have a long, long talk first.
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Duterte’s announcement was greeted with cheers and applause.
“Pinakita mo sa akin ‘yung sincerity mo (You’ve shown me your sincerity). I’d like you to leave something that you will be remembered by the country,” he said.
Gamboa, then Deputy Chief for Administration, has been serving as OIC chief since mid- October last year when P/Gen. Oscar Albayalde resigned as PNP Chief ahead of his retirement in November following allegations he intervened on behalf of his men who were involved in a raid on illegal drugs in 2013.
The new PNP Chief is a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s Sinagtala Class of 1986, whose classmates include Albayalde and Duterte’s first PNP chief, Ronald dela Rosa, now Senator.
Gamboa served as spokesperson of the PNP in the Davao Region from December 1997 when Duterte was ending his third term as city mayor, until September 2002, when Duterte, who served as 1st district representative from 1998 to 2001, was back as mayor. He enrolled in law school at the Ateneo de Davao University in 1998 but finished the course in Luzon and became a lawyer in 2004.
His other Mindanao assignments include serving as Bukdinon police chief from May 2005 to January 2007 and Chief of the Regional Comptrollership Division of the Caraga Regional Police Office from July 2008 to October 2009.
(MindaNews)