Senior Supt. Tayaba and Iloilo’s war vs illegal drugs

“Being a good police officer is one of the most difficult, dangerous, idealistic jobs in the world.”
--Thomas Hauser

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- When he was the chief of the Iloilo City Mobile Group (ICMG) in the late 1990s, Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, now Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) director, was one of the police officials in Western Visayas close to Iloilo reporters, especially the ladies.
Our Sun Star Iloilo reporters, Ednalyn Belonio-Diamante and Ruby Silbubrico, always had good police stories to write each time they interviewed Tayaba.
Tayaba, a member of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Class 1993, endeared himself to the press for being approachable and always available when sought for interview.
The popular police official from Pangasinan had served as the director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Region 6 before being assigned as the commander of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSB) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on January 2017.

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As the IPPO chief who led an operation that killed alleged Western Visayas drug lord Richard Prevendido at Landheights Subdivision in Balabago village in Jaro District on September 1, 2017, Tayaba’s name vaulted up as the “conqueror.”
When Prevendido’s sister, Brgy. Bakhaw, Mandurriao, Iloilo City Brgy. Captain Remia Prevendido-Gregori and her personal assistant, Analee Antapatria, were killed in a family-owned beach resort in San Joaquin, Iloilo on June 24, 2018, Tayaba told reporters the slain village chief was a “high-value target” for her alleged involvement in illegal drugs.
Tayaba claimed at least six unidentified armed men in red car assaulted the victims at around 4:30 o’clock in the afternoon.
As of this writing the culprits remained unidentified.

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Minutes after the foiled assassination of Police Officer 1 (PO1) Dorben Acap of the PNP Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU) in Sitio Pajo in Barangay Dulonan, Arevalo in Iloilo City on June 26, 2018, PO2 Melvin Mocorro, who reportedly worked under Tayaba, was rushed to a hospital with gunshot wounds.
Mocorro was being suspected as one of those who ambushed Acap, who managed to fire back.
Acap has survived and vowed to reveal more details about the botched assassination once doctors clear him.
There was no immediate confirmation from probers about Mocorro’s involvement in the ambush, as of this writing.
We expect Tayaba to be the “man-of-the-hour” in the next several weeks and months when the IPPO and the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) led by Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao step up their campaign against “persons of authority” (including cops, town and barangay officials) involved in illegal drug trafficking.
Tayaba and his team’s remarkable operations against dangerous personalities in illegal drugs trade have gained national attention.
Their blitzkrieg occurred days after President Rodrigo R. Duterte told Philippine councilors in a national convention in Iloilo City he wanted more traffickers of illegal drugs killed, including the “narco cops.”